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Essay on the Genus Myll.ena ; by the Rev. A. Matthews, 

 M.A. 



The Genus Myllcpna has always held a special iuterest in my 

 mind, inasmuch as my first attempt at dissection was made upon 

 its species. As long ago as February, 1834, Avhile yet a l)oy, 

 my attention was one day much excited by observing upon a 

 piece of bark, which I had removed from a Willow tree, grow- 

 ing at the edge of some water near Weston-on-the-green in 

 Oxfordshire, a multitude of small Brachelytrous insects, packed 

 close together side by side, and in a dormant condition ; there 

 were many hundreds all of one species, and, which appeared to 

 me very remarkable, each individual held his abdomen raised 

 perpendicularly from his body, without at any time altering its 

 position. When on the folloAving morning I examined my 

 captures, I was yet more surprised by seeing that two long 

 slender spines proceeded from the mouth of every specimen. 

 I soon found by dissection that these spines arose from the 

 labium, but not knowing much of such matters I communicated 

 my discovery to Professor Westwood, who very kindly assisted 

 me in the investigation. My interest having been thus aroused, 

 I hunted carefully for others of the same geniis, and in the 

 course of two or three years had the good fortune to discover 

 five additional species. At length ray Father determined to 

 publish the Essay on that genus, which appeared in the " Ento- 

 mological Magazine" of January, 1838 ; in this Essay the genus 

 was called Centror/lossj, from the styles of the mouth, and six 

 species were described, all of which are still recognized as distinct. 

 But the attention of Entomologists on the Continent had been 

 simultaneously turned in the same direction. Dr. Erichson in his 

 genus Mylla^na had already puldished descriptions of three of 

 the species contained in the Essay I have mentioned; these three, 

 M. (h(bia, intermedia, and miimtu, retain the names assigned to 

 them by Dr. Erichson ; the other three, iV. elongata, gracilis, 

 and brevicornis, are still known by my Father's names. 



C 



CiSTULA EnTOMOLOGICA, 



ist Sept., 1883. 



