317 



empty pupse of Diptera, numerous "runs" of Lepidopterous 

 larvje, which he considered the work of Aglossa pinguinalis, and 

 the remains of Anthrenus. On the body itself were d6bris of 

 Ptinus and the cast skins of Acari. But nothing whatever in a 

 livin*'' state. In taking into consideration the nature of the insect 

 remains, M. Lichtenstein arrived at the conclusions that four or 

 more years must have elapsed since the body was deposited where 

 it was found, and (from the Dipterous pupse), that it must have 

 previously been exposed to the air for some time. 



A slight knowledge of entomology might have saved Eogers 

 from a great mistake. In his " Pleasures of Memory " he says — 

 alluding to the bee — 



" That eye so finely wrought, 

 Beyond the search of sense, the soar of thought, 

 Now vainly asks the scenes she left behind ; 

 Its orb so full, its vision so confined I " 



And to this he appends the following note : — " This little 

 animal, from the extreme convexity of her eye, cannot see many 

 inches before her." 



Kogers had probably read somewhere that shortsight was 

 caused by a too great convexity of the cornea, and noticing that 

 the bee had a very convex eye, came to the conclusion that it must 

 in consequence be extremely shortsighted. 



The truth is just the other way — the more convex the eye of 

 an insect the further it is able to see — for the eye is not simple 

 but compound, composed of a number of facettes, varying much 

 in different species, and many insects, the bee among the number, 

 are provided with ocelli, or simple eyes, probably to enable them 

 to see objects when quite close, as inside the corolla of a flower 

 for instance. 



The specimens now before you, and which have all been taken 

 by myself in this neighbourhood, comprise 46 species of the sub- 

 order Hemiptera-Heteroptera, and these are probably not more 



