Nova Acta Acad. Ccesar, Naturce Curiosorum, 259 



than usual upon our space, and for having done so they must 

 plead our excuse. Its novelty cannot be more convincingly 

 shewn than by the circumstance, that, in the invaluable compen- 

 dium which Mr. Kirby has given us of his own observations, and 

 of those of other entomological anatomists, no such connection 

 is once alluded to. It is equally neglected in that part of the 

 work of M. Leon Dufour, published at the latter part of the last 

 year, in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, which treats of the 

 female organs of generation. The connecting filament, as Dr. 

 Muller denominates it, has indeed been frequently traced to 

 some distance from the ovary, but it has never before been even 

 suspected that it formed a pervious communication with the 

 dorsal vessel ; on the contrary, it has been looked upon merely 

 as a suspensory ligament. The importance of the fact will be 

 fully appreciated by all who take an interest in the study of 

 comparative physiology. The other part of the paper, which 

 relates to the development of the eggs, is also remarkable for the 

 same profound research, and although not so important in its 

 influence on the elementary principles of the science, abounds 

 with new and interesting facts well deserving of an attentive 

 consideration. 



Among the Insects described by M. Klug in his ^' Entomo- 

 logiaB Brasilianae Specimen alterum, sistens Insectorum Coleop- 

 tratorum nondum descriptorum Centuriam," there are several 

 which deserve a particular mention. Such are the Buprestis 

 hydropica and the B. penicillata^ which in their two-horned 

 heads, and in the remarkable dilatation of their elytra before the 

 apex, offer so singular a form, as almost to induce us to regard 

 them as the types of a new subgenus. The Lytta vidua appears 

 intermediate in habit between the genera Cantharis and 

 Tetraonyx^ Lat. ; the Lytta depressa exhibits the form of 

 Pyrochroa ; while the Lytta Ilerculanea^ Germar, presents so 

 striking a deviation from the type of that genus, in its lengthened 

 stature, its narrow and almost oblong head, and its considerably 

 attenuated thorax, as to require for itself a new generic appel- 

 lation. Among the Saperd<s w;e are also presented with four 

 species, which evidently form a section or subgenus, distin- 



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