PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. Ill 



members will see that there is a very great resemblance between them and the insects of this 

 country. I have placed on coloured paper one or two British specimens of the same species 

 immediately after some of the American specimens, that members may have an opportunity 

 of comparing them; and in these instances I think they will see that they are nearly the 

 same. There arc a considerable number of insects which arc common both to North America 

 and Europ:). Kirby, in Richardson's "Fauna Boreali Americana," describes forty-nine Beetles 

 as identical. So far as my observation goes, I should say they were too close to be specifically 

 separated; but still that there is a slight difference, which enables a practised eye to detect 

 which is American and which is British ; but such variations I look upon merely as the effect 

 of the difference of food and climate. The next division in the boxes contains the insects 

 taken on the east flank of the Rocky Mountains, and among them members will see two or 

 three very beautiful Carabi (which are undescribed.) The last division comprises those from 

 the west flank of the Rocky Mountains, most of which also are undescribed. Among these 

 will be seen a few specimens of a representative of our Blister-fly. I have placed next them, 

 on coloured paper, the common Blister-fly of Europe. A considerable number of these Beetles 

 was received; in fact, a greater proportion of them than of any other species; from which I 

 infer that they are found in large numbers, in the same way as they are in Europe, and i 

 that when a great empire shall have grown up on the west of the Rocky Mountains, the 

 apothecaries of its cities will be supplied with this essential article from their own hills. That 

 the species has the same blistering properties as the European insect I do not in the least 

 doubt. The specimens are too few and too valuable to allow us to pound some of them up 

 to make the experiment, but the whole of the spirits in which the insects came home was 

 tinged by them of their own greenish hue. The only other insects in the lot which particularly 

 call for attention are the two which are placed last, and stand a little apart. The first is a 

 Carabm of a very curious form, or rather, I should say, a new genus approaching Carabus. 

 I propose to call it apoplecticm, from its apoplectic appearance The other small fawn-coloured 

 insect beside it is by far the most curious of the whole. It is a species (I believe undescribed) 

 of a most extraordinary genus of Beetles (Nemognatha, Lat.^ of great rarity, and which, I 

 imagine, few of our members have had an opportunity of seeing before. The extraordinary 

 part of this insect is the two curling appendages at its mouth. For the benefit of those who 

 are not entomologists I may mention, that the principal parts of the mouth of a Beetle are 

 those which I have delineated in the rough sketch which I now show. The mandibles, or 

 jaws, which seize and comminute the food, and the maxillae, which are a second pair of jaws, 

 of a thinner and finer texture, and generally furnished with hairs, and fine teeth somewhat 

 like a comb. These maxillae are furnished with either one or two pair of palpi attached to 

 them. Besides these, the labium or under lip is furnished with a pair of palpi. The principal 

 office of these, although they are to a certain extent analogous to the antennas, is probably to 

 perform that duty of the tongue which consists in placing and keeping the food in its proper 

 position between the jaws during mastication. It is only, however, to the mandibles and 

 maxilla) that I wish in this instance to direct attention. They, like the antenna) and palpi 

 (indeed, like every part of an insect,) vary much in their forms; but however much thej^ do 

 so, they still bear the same relation to the rest of the body. But here we have what appears 

 a deviation from this rule. All the other parts remain in their normal state, but the maxillje 

 are changed into long flexible processes, which project from the mouth. I have marked in the 

 sketch the mandibles black, the maxillae red, and the long processes by which they are 

 replaced blue. These seem to be composed of a succession of rings meeting at the back. The 

 specimen being unique, is too valuable to be sacrificed for dissection, so that I cannot say 

 whether it is tubular or not; but it has every appearance of being so. In fact, it bears a 

 strong resemblance to the trunk of an elephant, with the exception of the termination. Instead 

 of having a mouth or opening, it appears to terminate in a point, — at least, with the most 

 powerful lens, I can discover no opening at the end of the tube. This strange conversion of 

 the maxilla) would find a parallel, were we to suppose an elephant with a pair of additional 

 trunks (though impervious) issuing from its mouth, in place of the molar teeth. These 

 observations have been made solely from the diied specimen. It occurred among the lot 

 which fell to my friend Dr. Lowe, to whose kindness I owe the specimen, as well as several 

 others of the most valuable in the box. He was at once much struck with the singular 

 appendages I have described, and tells rae they were highly flexible when taken out of the 



