SCtKNTlFlC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 307 



found ill the ucsts were mauy dipterous larva), some of the larger ones 

 being spiny, and others with a short tail ; tliese 1 hope to breed, as tiiey 

 liave buried themselves in some earth in the vessel in which I ])laeed them. 

 Other Coleoptera obtained vmYG Aleoc ha ra J'usci pes and the little CnjjiUi- 

 phaam pubescent, in numbers. Of the latter Canon Fowler says 

 [Coieoptfra of the Britiah Isles, vol. iii,, p. 22G) : " This species has 

 occurred on the continent, in nests of Vespa culi/aris and Bom bus 

 tcrrestris." — Horace Donistuorpe, F.Z.S., F.E.S., Sth. Kensington. 



A NOTE ON THE ACTION OF THE CLASPS IN ErEWA. lu tllis 



genus (and many others) the clasp is a single piece of chitin, jointed 

 at the base to the supporting ring, but without any articulation in its 

 continuity, and witliout any appendages. Whilst more analog(jus to 

 the harpe than the valve in those forms where these parts are distin- 

 guishable, it probaljly represents both. It is, at any rate, a single 

 claw-like chitinous process, that one would expect to move and act as 

 a rigid rod. It is tubular, like any chitinous claw or process, wider at 

 the base or body, narrower at the neck and head. In the species I am 

 now more particularly thinking of, viz., embla, disa and liijea, those 

 namely which 1 had opportunity to observe alive last summer, the body 

 and neck are of fairly equal length, the body composed of the strong 

 chitin, except on the inner or upper side, where the surface covering 

 is thin and delicate. Perhaps a clear idea of its structure may be 

 given by suggesting that a (rather long) finger of a glove be taken and 

 slit up one side half way, and the sides of the opening be separated 

 rather widely, and the space between made good with some more 

 delicate tissue. This basal portion, with one weak side and a greater 

 circumference, would be the body, the remainder the neck and head. 

 The cavity of the body is tilled with muscular tissue. I had always 

 supposed that the function of this muscular mass was to ilex the 

 clasp on the basal ring, and I have no doubt this is a large part of its 

 function, though it is certainly unusual for the muscle for moving a 

 distal segment to be contained in that segment. In examining the 

 clasp, this summer, of a living Krebia, I was somewhat astonished, however, 

 to observe that the clasp itself was flexed at the junction of the body and 

 neck. I was so far incredulous that I repeated the oljservatiou many 

 times in the species mentioned above, so that there remains no doubt that 

 such flexure is part of the normal action of the clasp. It is most evident in 

 disa and ciidda, in which the neck is comparatively long and slender. 

 The ilexure takes place at the extremity of the body, in fact, at the ex- 

 tremity of the opening in the more solid chitin, and apparently is 

 pijssible by a certain amount of increased opening of the weak side, 

 that is, a stretching (or straightening out ?) of the softer integument of 

 that part of the clasp. It is indeed difficult to believe it possible that 

 a tube of such strong chitin as the clasp is formed of, could be bent 

 without fracture, unless it were allowecl to open on one side in this way. 

 My belief that this is how the bending can occur is, in truth, inference 

 rather than tibservation, the observation being only that the bending 

 at this point actually takes place. What may be the use of this pro- 

 vision is a (luestion that suggests itself. It can hardly be to secure a 

 lirmer gri}), ])ecause it would seem that that might have been oljtained 

 by a somewhat greater curvature of the clasp. I incline to think it 

 is to obtaiu a more extendeil attachment at the time the gri[) is taken, 

 the movement giving a vermiform action as between the two portions 



