Mr. 11. Patterson on Blaps Mortisaga. 
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XVII. Note respecting the Larva of Blaps Mortisaga. By 
Robert Patterson, Esq., V. P. Nat. Hist. Soc. Belfast. 
With a Description of the Larva. By A. H. Haliday, 
Esq .,M.A. 
[Read January 4th, 1836.] 
On the 2d of June, 1834, I had the pleasure of spending the day 
at Bangor, in the county of Down, accompanied by Dr. J. L. 
Drummond, and one or two other friends. In the afternoon of 
that day, Dr. Wilson, of Bangor, handed to Dr. Drummond a 
living “ worm,” which he informed him had been passed by a 
child only three months’ old, and that a similar “ worm” had been 
passed by the same child about a fortnight before. Dr. Drummond 
knowing that it was the larva of some Coleopterous insect, placed 
it under my care. I therefore, on my return home, procured a 
small vessel, half filled with fine garden mould, and in this the 
larva was deposited, and the soil occasionally moistened with a 
few drops of w r ater. On the 2d of August I removed a little of 
the earth, to ascertain the condition of its occupant ; it was then per- 
fectly developed as a pupa, but soft and white. Whether it sustained 
any injury either by the replacing of the earth, or by its convey- 
ance from Bangor, is a point I am unable to decide ; but on re- 
visiting it on the lltli of August, I found that the unknown 
“ worm” had proved to be the larva of the Blaps Mortisaga, and 
had become transformed into a specimen of that insect, black, 
hard, and perfect in all respects, except that the termination of 
the elytra was wanting ; on one side more so than on the other. 
The Blaps Mortisaga is an insect of rather rare occurrence in 
this neighbourhood. My friend, Mr. G. C. Hyndman, of this 
town, who has been for many years an indefatigable Entomologist, 
informed me some time ago, that he had never seen this beetle in 
a living state. I have been rather more fortunate, as I have cap- 
tured two specimens in an old dwelling-house in this town, but 
those w r ere the only two I had ever met with. This scarcity of 
the beetle, conjoined with the case published by Dr. Pickells, of 
Cork, made me think the matter worth a little further inquiry. 
Accordingly, being in Bangor on the 14th of September, I went 
in company with Dr. Wilson to the house whence the caterpillar 
had been obtained. The grandmother of the child, the same per- 
son who had brought the larva to Dr. Wilson, now seemed inclined 
to deny her former statement. She said she might be mistaken — 
VOL. II. 
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