•with a JJjort Hijlory of the Ceramhyx violaceus of Liimaus. 25 1 



But of all the fpecies of this genu?, Ptims pertinax is. the moft mif- 

 chievous ; any kind of wood that begins to have a tendency to de- 

 cay, it attacks without mercy. I fpeak this from experience, having 

 a chamber in my houfe, the floor of which is quite filled and per- 

 forated in every dirc<5lion by this deQruclivc little in fcfl ; and my 

 walnut-tree chairs it has nearly reduced to the fame (late that 

 Linnaeus obfcrves it had done his {a), 



Amongfl: the Curculiones^ the late Ingenious Mr. Curtis has in- 

 formed us, that C. Lapalhi feeds upon the willow [b], C. /ig/iarius (c) 

 preys upon the trunk of putrid elms; and C. aUamentarius{d) I 

 have found in all its ftates in old rails under bark. There is one 

 infect, which although not as yet difcovered in England,*ought not 

 to be paffed over, as its hiftory furnifties a flriking proof how ufe- 

 ful the fludy of Natural Hiflory may be made when applied to 

 Qiconomics : the infedl I allude to is the Cantharis navalis of Lin- 

 nxus. Our prefident, the liberal poflrefTorof the Linnasan treafures, 

 informs me, from the Iter IVeJIrogothicum, that the oak timber in the 

 royal dock-yards in Sweden being obfervcd to have fufFered con- 

 fiderable injury from fome unknown animal, Linnaeus was defired 

 by ttis Swedifli Majefty to trace out the caufe, and point out fome 

 remedy which might prevent the further progrefs of fo alarming 

 an evil. Upon inquiry he difcovered that the mifchief was occa- 

 lioned by this Cantharis., and he recommended that the timber 

 fhould be immerfed in water during the ufual time of this infeft's 



(a) Terebravlt et deftruxit fedilia mea. Linn. Syft, Nat. 

 (*) Linn. Tranf. Vol. I. p. 86. 



(t) Lignariiu. 113. C. nigro-piceus totus, roftro craffiufculo, thorace punftato, elytris 

 abbreviatis. Marfliam M.S. 



{d) Jiranteniarm. 165. C, ater obovatus, thorace utrinque unidentato, elytris ftri- 

 atU. Ibid, 



K k 2 appearance. 



