1480 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PARTY iI, 
perhaps, brushing them over at that period with some coal tar ” may, by its 
smell, which is known to be offensive to all insects, deter any from settling on 
the trees for some days or weeks. In jig. 1289., f shows the larve of Nitidula 
1289 
grisea; g, one of the same larvz magnified ; , the pupa of the Nitidula grisea ; 
2, the pupa magnified ; 4, the perfect insects ; and /, the perfect insect magnified. 
(Lin. Trans., vol. i. p. 89.) 
Cryptorhynchus lapathi is exceedingly abundant in the osier beds near 
Barnes and Mortlake. In the perfect state, it is very sluggish, remaining 
nearly stationary upon the leaves and slender twigs, to which it attaches 
itself very firmly, by means ofits broad cushioned tarsi, and probably, also, by 
the bent hook at the extremity of the tibia. Several interesting particulars 
are recorded relative to this species in Howitt’s Book of the Seasons, In 
the late Mr. Haworth’s Review of Entomology, published in the first part 
of the old Entomological Society’s Transactions, is given an extract from the 
Ashmolean Appendix to Ray’s Historia Insectorum, relative to the “ Curcilio 
lapathi of Linnzeus, the ancient spelling of which appears to have been 
Gurgulio ; which species was selected for two reasons ; “the one, because it is 
a well-known insect; and the other, because, according to this ingenious author, 
it possesses, though feebly, the faculty of voice; which is a piece of informa- 
tion for which I am altogether indebted to this tract.” ‘“ Lacessitus vocem 
querulam dedit.” The sound here alluded to is produced by the friction 
of the hollowed base of the thorax against the elevated front of the elytra. 
This insect, which is the Curctlio lapathi of Linnzeus (Syst. Nat., ii. 608. 
20.; Rhynchee‘nus lapathi of Fabricius, Syst. Eleuth., ii. 466., and Gyllenkall 
and the Cryptorhynchus lapathi of Illiger and Stephens), varies in length from 
iin. to 4in. It is of an opaque dirty black colour, with the sides of the thorax, 
and the base and apical portion of the elytra clothed with white scales ; the 
thorax and elytra being also ornamented with minute tufts of black scales. 
It feeds, also, upon the alders and sharp dock (Rimex actus), according 
to Gyllenhall. Kirby and Spence, however, appear to doubt the correctness 
of this last habitat, considering the name lapathi to have been given to the 
insect by mistake; observing that, as “docks often grow under willows, the 
mistake in question might easily have happened.” (Introd. to Ent., i. p. 196. - 
note. 
the salictum in the Botanic Garden at Oxford, we are informed by Mr. 
