AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGY. 



the practice of medicine ; and it is certain that a sufficient quan- 

 tity may be collected in the United States to supply the demand 

 of the shops, to the complete exclusion of the foreign insect. 



Lytta Nuttalli. — SjK'ciJic character. Bright green, varied 

 with golden ; elytra golden purple ; feet* black, thighs blue, tro- 

 chanters armed with a spine. 



L. Nuttalli nobis. Jour. Acad. Nat. Sciences, vol. iii. p. 300. 



Desc. Body glabrous : head deep greenish, varied with golden ; 

 front punctured, subimpressed, and with a small rufous spot ; 

 antennae robust, surpassing the base of the thorax, black, opaque : 

 joints turbinate, approaching to moniliform, the margin of the tip 

 rounded ; second joint two-thirds the length of the third ; termi- 

 nal joints largest near the middle, and rapidly attenuated to an 

 acute tip : eyes oblong-oval, emarginate : palpi black : clypeus 

 and labrum obscure : thorax golden-green, polished, with un- 

 equal, minute, sparse punctures : a longitudinal, dorsal, impressed 

 line, and a transverse basal one ; base bluish, anterior angles 

 prominent : scutel blue, obtuse behind : elytra red, or golden- 

 pui'ple, somewhat rugose : two indistinct elevated lines on the 

 disk, and a submarginal one : beneath green, polished : feet 

 black ; thighs beneath blue or purplish ; trochanters armed with 

 a conic spine near the inner base, obsolete or wanting in the 

 female. 



Ohs. This noble species, which in magnitude and splendor 

 surpasses the far-famed vesicatoria, has, I understand, been 

 labelled in a British cabinet with the name which I have here 

 adopted, in honor of Mr. Thomas Nuttall, who discovered it. 



Although this insect certainly belongs to this genus, yet the 

 proportional length, of the second and third joints of the antennfc, 

 is somewhat similar to that of the genus Zonitix, as defined by 

 Latreille in the Regne x\nimal. In common with several other 

 American species, the antennae increase a little in thickness to- 

 wards the tip, but are much shorter than in Zonitis. These cha- 

 racters, combined with the form of the terminal joint, seem to 

 prove a close alliance with the genus 3fi/lahris, but the antenna) 

 are not arquated at tip, and are of a more considerable length ; 

 the habit also differs, the form of the body being more elongated. 

 The species, then, possessing the form of antennge above noted. 



