Mr. A. White on some Coleopterous Insects. 4<77 



cephaluSf of which a fine figure, with some striking remarks, has been 

 pubhshed by Mr. Curtis in the * Transactions of the Linnaean Society ;' 

 of this species, three specimens known to me, exist in this country, 

 one in Mr. Melly's great cabinet at Liverpool, a second drawn by 

 Mr. Westwood in the ' Arcana Entomologica,' from a specimen in his 

 own very curious collection, and a third exhibited at the Linnseafi So- 

 ciety in 1854, from the rare cabinet of Mr. Aspinall Turner of Man- 

 chester. This remarkable Prionidous insect, like the Mole-cricket, 

 has been altogether constructed for a subterraneous life ; its marvel- 

 lously developed thorax, fossorial and burrowing legs, curiously de- 

 fended head, abbreviated antennae, and other characters well shown 

 by Mr. Westwood, and particularly by Mr. Curtis, all mark this ; 

 just as Dorysthenes of the East, a burrowing insect, is shown by 

 M. Guerin-Meneville to have Walrus-like jaws, as Lethrus has incurved 

 mandibles and other features useful in supporting the creature in the 

 holes of the ground whence it comes. As aberrant Prionidce may be 

 mentioned, the very curious genera Torneutes, Reich., described in 

 the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (ii. 9, t. 2. f. 7), of which three species 

 are now known, one from Patagonia, described by M. Guerin, and 

 the singularly interesting Erichsonia of Mexico, named by Mr. 

 Westwood, in memory of that most laborious and scientific of all the 

 German entomologists. Dr. Erichson. The genus Thaumasus, 

 Reich. (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1853, p. 419), founded on what Olivier 

 described as a gigantic species of Ips (Ips ffiffas, Journ. d'Hist. Nat. 

 1792, i. 267, pi. 14. f. 6 ; Thaumasus g., Reich. 1. c. p. 422, pi. 13. 

 f. 4), may be particularized as another aberrant form. In fact, the 

 family Prionidce, like many other great families, is more negative 

 than positive, and will be found at its extremities, or at many points 

 of its circumference, to lead off to other families, and even tribes : 

 so that the naturalist, who wishes to simplify arrangement, however 

 much he may split up genera, ought to avoid dividing families. 



It may interest the general reader to quote a short passage from a 

 privately circulated paper, written by my friend Mr. Empson of Bath, 

 a distinguished natural-history traveller in South America. The insect 

 alluded to is the noble Fsalidognathus Friendii (G. R. Gray), which 

 is named by the natives of Columbia *Alaja,' that is, * the jewel.' Mr. 

 Empson remarks, "The first of these splendid insects which I ever saw, 

 was at a feast given by the Cabildo, at Mariquita; upon that occasion 

 Don Domingo Conde had placed one of them as a button to loop up, 

 after the Spanish fashion, the broad brim of his Panama hat ; to this 

 brilliant ornament a loop of living Fireflies was attached, in a mode 

 common in South America, and which does not injure those dazzling 

 insect gems ; thus decorated, the sombrero of the cavalero was more 

 conspicuous in the ball-room than the jewelled tiaras of his more 

 wealthy neighbours, although sparkling with the choice emeralds 

 from the mines of Muzo. 



" After many a weary search," adds Mr. Empson, " with Don 

 Domingo for my guide, in the primaeval forests on the eastern slopes 

 of the Andes, we captured three of those Alajas." One of those, he 

 remarks, " was resting on the perishing trunk of a palm-tree ; in our 



