Meriari's Insects of Surinam. 355 



points of distinction between these three species are supplied 

 by the differences in their habits. The M. eddlis is found 

 thickly clustered on the large flat scars, and the M. in- 

 curvatus fills the crevices and fissures of the rocks: the 

 species which is the subject of my notice is invariably, except 

 in the solitary instances to which I have above alluded, laid 

 under water. It is found in the large pools left by the retir- 

 ing tide, in groups of three or four together, firmly attached 

 by their strong byssus to the under surfaces of the large stones 

 with which the water is here and there studded ; so that, to 

 procure them, it is necessary to wade into the pools, and 

 overturn these stones. 



Mr. J. Alder of Newcastle has arranged it under the name 

 of ik/ytilus angulatus ; and the Rev. W. Mark of Shields 

 calls it M. solitarius ; but the largest individuals which these 

 gentlemen have ever seen are less than the smaller figures 

 {b and c) ; and as the shells of all muscles are more or less 

 angular, and as this is not a species of a solitary habit, I 

 would propose the name of M, subsaxatilis, as most charac- 

 teristic of the situations in which it is found. The charac- 

 ters of its habitat, combined with its peculiar solid form, 

 give it as good a title to be styled a distinct species as, if 

 not a better one than, that of the transparent shell of the 

 M. pellucidus, or the small blunted form of the shell of the 

 M, incurvatus, does these species respectively. 



Queen Street, Scarborough, June 10. 1834. 



[For a notice of the localities of the M. polymorph us, see 

 VI. 532. ; and for a statement of the characteristics of the M. 

 striatulus Linn., see VII. 350.] 



Art. X. Observations on the Work of Maria Sibilla Merian on the 

 Insects, Sfc, of Surinam. By the late Rev. Lansdown Guilding, 

 B.A. RL.S. i&c. * 

 Such of your readers as may possess a coloured copy 



of Madame Merian's work, may be glad to receive the 



[* He died at St. Vincent in 1832, under 50 years of age. 

 " Yes ! thou hast pass'd life's transient hour. 

 Yet oft shall fancy's witching power 



Recall thy parted breath : 

 Still shall thy name in * deeds ' survive. 

 Still shall thy * thought ' in memory live. 

 Though thou art cold in death ! " 

 In vol.xvii. of the LiniKBan TransactiojiSy part i. published May, 1834, 

 there is an additional instance of the industry of this arduous-minded man : 



A A 2 



