Mr. F. Walker on some British Chalcidites. 181 



there is no fresh nutriment for organized beings of any kind, has 

 become untenable. 



10. Life and temperature in the depths of the ocean are, in 

 their variable relation, the points which at present deserve espe- 

 cial attention. 



11. The showers of meteoric dust, or supposed ashes, have at 

 present been proved to be, even in the case where they fell 380 

 sea-miles from land, of organic and terrestrial origin. 



12. It is not perishable Protococci or Ulvce or Lichens that 

 principally constitutes the organic covering and soil of the ulti- 

 mate islands in the Polar Sea ; but the living creatures that form 

 the first layer of solid earth are invisible, minute, free animals of 

 the genera Pinnularia, Eunotia and Stauroneis with their siliceous 

 loricse. Several species from the North Pole and the South Pole 

 are identical. 



XXIII. — Descriptions of some British Chalcidites. By Francis 

 Walker, Esq., F.L.S. 



Callimome Rasaces, Fem. Cupreus purpureo varius, metathorace 

 viridi, abdomine cyaneo bast rufo, antennis nigris, pedibus fulvis, 

 alis subfuscis. (Corp. long. lin. 2 ; alar. lin. 3.) 



Body convex : head and thorax cupreous, tinged with purple, 

 covered with minute scales disposed in little transverse striae : head 

 short, transverse, a little broader than the thorax : antennae subcla- 

 vate, black, as long as the thorax ; first joint fulvous, long, stout, 

 linear, black towards the tip ; second cyathiform ; third and fourth 

 very minute ; fifth and following joints to the club successively de- 

 creasing in length ; club long- conical, acuminate, much more than 

 twice the length of the eleventh joint : thorax elliptical, punctured 

 sparingly and irregularly : prothorax large, subquadrate ; its breadth 

 exceeding its length ; rounded on each side in front : scutum of the 

 mesothorax large, its breadth slightly exceeding its length ; sutures 

 of the parapsides distinct, approaching each other; axillae large, 

 triangular, not conniving ; scutellum nearly rhomboidal, of moderate 

 size, abruptly decumbent behind : metathorax including the propo- 

 deon short, transverse, rugulose, mostly green : podeon extremely 

 short : abdomen elliptical, subcompressed, smooth, dark blue varied 

 with purple, as long as the thorax ; metapodeon pale red, occupying 

 rather more than one-fourth of the dorsum ; octoon much snorter 

 than the metapodeon; ennaton much longer? than the octoon; 

 decaton as long? as the octoon; protelum, paratelum and telum 

 short : oviduct a little longer than the abdomen : legs stout, fulvous : 

 wings slightly fuscous; nervures piceous; humerus less than half 

 the length of the wing; ulna more than half the length of the 

 humerus ; radius about one-fourth of the length of the ulna ; cubitus 

 extremely short, not so long as the radius ; stigma of moderate size, 

 emitting a short stout branch that points towards the tip of the radius. 



