X3G [November, 



the insects, which latter I had fouud upon this plant which grows in marshy places. 

 I was much astonished at the circumstance, and, wishing to verify the facts, I returned 

 several days afterwards to again take the females, but did not find any, and, to my 

 great regret, was obliged to defer my observations to this year. Already I had the 

 thought that the insects were really viviparous, and from the time of their appear- 

 ance set to work to find females in order to study them attentively. 



I found two on the Slst of May in a very satisfactory condition for observation. 

 Upon returning home I placed them in a suitable bottle, and next day was able to 

 convince myself that they were really viviparous, for they laid no eggs, but gave 

 direct birth to larvae already rather large. I remarked that all were deposited in the 

 same position, the abdomen appearing first, attached by an appendage of the last 

 segment, that serves for locomotion during an early age, either to a leaf of the plant 

 or on the glass of the bottle. The larvse remained in this position for a minute 

 without moving, their colour being that of a gummy substance. At the end of this 

 time they commenced to colour and to become agitated : after ten minutes they were 

 completely brown, and were already feeding upon the plant I had placed with them. 



They changed their. skin for the first time on the fifth or sixth day, a second 

 time on the twelfth ; on the sixteenth to eighteenth they had gone into the earth, and 

 I have seen nothing of them since. 



I do not know that this fact has been recorded, and think even that viviparous 

 generation has only been noticed in the two Brazilian StaphyVmidce mentioned by 

 M. Schiodte. — L. Bleuze, in the " Petites NouveUes Eutomologiques " for October 

 1st, 1874. 



Note on the existence of strididating organs in the genus Lomaptera. — While 

 examining some specimens of the genu's Lomaptera, I have ascertained the existence 

 of some powerful stridulating organs in some of the species of the genus. If a 

 specimen of Lomaptera Latreillei be examined, there will be fouud at the side of 

 the second abdominal segment, close to the edge of the elytra, a slightly raised space 

 thickly set with fine slightly-curved lines like a file, these lines being continued along 

 the hinder margin of the segment for some distance ; and a similar structure will be 

 noted on the following tliii'd segment ; and if the femur be examined, its inner 

 surface will be found to be entu-ely covered with coarser and less regular Unes. 

 That these lines afford a means of making a noise is at once pretty clear, and is very 

 easily demonstrated by seizing the hind tibia with a pair of forceps, and by its assis- 

 tance moving the femur backwards and forwards with a slight pressure so as to make 

 it grate against the abdominal surface, when a loud creaking or stridulation is 

 produced. 



This power is not confined to either sex ; but, on the other hand, it is confined to 

 one group of species of the genus, viz., the large oblong and but sUghtly convex 

 species, in which the color is only slightly metallic ; and among these species it will 

 afford some valuable means of distinguishing the species ; thus, in the Lomaptera 

 fasciata of Burmeister, which inhabits the island of Waigiou, there is on the fourth 

 abdominal segment an impci'fect additional file, of which there is no trace in the L. 

 livittata of Q-ory, which inhabits New Guinea ; these two species being now con- 

 sidered as only one (I think, erroneously). In the peculiar species L. plana, the 

 inner surface of the femur is very rugose, but the raised abdominal files are absent, 



