HANSEN, H. J.: HEMIMERUS TALPOIDES WLK. 8 1 



de vie des Hemimerus. Nous ne serions pas éloigné de leur 

 supposer des moeurs parasitiques. C'est là ce que semblent indi- 

 quer leurs formes aplaties, l'atrophie* des yeux, la brièveté des 

 antennes, la forme des pattes qui sont bien aptes à remplir l'of- 

 fice de crampons. Il ne serait pas impossible que ces insectes 

 vécussent sur des quadrupèdes, comme les Platypsylbis avec les- 

 quels ils offrent une certaine analogie de faciès.» These supposi- 

 tions have turned out to be right. Mr. Yngve Sjöstedt, who 

 has collected a rich material of different classes of Arthropods for 

 the »Riksmuseum» in Stockholm and besides has captured Rodents 

 to Prof. T. Tullberg in Upsala, has written to me a letter at 

 great length, the most part of which I shall translate here. In 

 order to capture Rodents, traps of different kind were set »in the 

 forests on such places where these animals through their holes are 

 proving themselves to be found, and in such a trap, a fox-trap, 

 set in April inside the portion of the primitive forest near to the 

 mangrove forest on Kitta, a great rat was captured, according to 

 the determination of Prof. T. Tullberg being Cricetomys gam- 

 bianus Waterh. Occupied with detaching this Rodent from 

 the trap I observed a considerable multitude of small, tawny 

 animals, very lively springing upon the rat and penetrating be- 

 tween the hairs or curring upon the trap in advance of my hands, 

 from which they turned down upon the ground, where I succeeded 

 in catching some specimens and put them into a tube with spirit; 

 a pair and among them a young [described above] was taken 

 upon the rat. If I had been suspecting what a curious and rare 

 Insect I had before my eyes I had, undoubtedly, obtained many 

 more specimens by continued searching. Informed by Prof. AuRi- 

 viLLius that it was just the mentioned Heniimems talpoides, 

 and requested to search after it carefully in the future in order 

 to obtain more specimens, I examined very carefully all the rats 

 taken during the latter time, among which, however, no Crice- 

 tomys, but without result. Immediately before my homeward 

 route I visited Rio del Rey's factory, conducted by Mr. G. Linnell, 

 who had promised to preserve all the Rodents he possibly could 

 obtain, and at my arrival he told me that he had succeeded in 

 getting a great rat, ardently searched for by the natives for the 

 sake of its flesh — just the Cricetomys gambianus — captured 



Entoinol. Tt'dskr. Arg. 15, H. 2 (1894V I7 6 



