116 REPORT — 1855. 



they come to maturity, and then descend into the earth to undergo their transform- 

 ation ; and in walking over the fields we find every patch of dung swarming with 

 their 'larva;. At Old Calabar we could find nothing of this. The heat is so great 

 that in a couple of days the patch of dung would be quite dried up. The Aphodii, 

 therefore, have a different habit. As soon as the dung has been dropped, they come, 

 and each bores a hole under it ; and carry down a small quantity there to feed, and 

 lay their eggs ; so that they, at one and the same time, clear away the refuse from 

 the ground, and apply it as manure to the roots of the plants. 



As already mentioned, the Longicorns have furnished a considerable number of 

 novelties, many of great beauty ; but with the exception of one or two species, 

 which occur in quantity, the individuals have been very scarce. It is, however, in 

 the Phytophaga that nature seems to have most revelled here. Their number is 

 great both to individuals and species, and a great portion of them are undescribed. 

 Many new genera also occur. The number of brilliant little Cassida is also remark- 

 able. The Heferomera are numerous in individuals ; not so much so in species. A 

 number of Mr. Westwood's recently described species have occurred. Of the 

 JBrachelytra no representatives have been found. A single new Faussns (named 

 Paussus Marrayi by Westwood) has also been found. Members w'ill recollect that 

 it was on this coast that the first Paussus known was met with. Afzelius was 

 sitting at table in the dusk, when a small insect dropped upon his paper, carrying 

 two globe-shaped autennse like coach-lanterns on its head, both giving out a feeble 

 lio-ht. This was the Paussus sph(Brocephalus. Mr. Westwood has since described 

 a large number of species ; and he seems to question the accuracy of Afzelius, so 

 far as regards the light given out by the antennae, as that has not been observed 

 since, and many of the species have hard and untransparent globes on the antenna;. 

 The globes in Afzelius's species, however, are semi-transparent ; and the habit of 

 life of many of them would seem to render their luminosity not improbable, for 

 they live in ants' nests, and it would surely be very convenient to have a pair of 

 lanterns fastened like a Davy lamp on their head, to light them on their way 

 through the dark galleries. If it is so, it shows how diversely nature sometimes 

 acts under the same circumstances. Here she provides a hght for the darkness ; 

 while in other instances, where species live wholly in the dark, as in the caves of 

 Carniola, Kentucky, &c., and in the genus Ckiviger, which lives in ants' nests, she 

 takes away their eyes altogether as useless appendages. The Hemiptera are largely 

 represented in Old Calabar. A great proportion of them are undescribed ; but M. 

 Signoret has undertaken to describe the most striking of the new species, and has 

 already described and figured one or two in the ' Annals of the Entomological 

 Society of France.' 



There seem to be a good many spideis. A large Mygale was exhibited to the Royal 

 Physical Society by Mr. Logan ; and the species of Epeira clavipcs, described by 

 Palissot de Beauvois, appears common. Dr. Lowe of Edinburgh also described two 

 species of gigantic lulus. A word regarding the geographical relations of the 

 insects of this country. The most striking circumstance is the relationship of many 

 of them to South American species. We not only find many representatives of 

 American genera, but actually species of genera hitherto only known as South 

 American ; and in some instances even the same species occurs, such as Mallodon 

 maxillosum, Bosfrkhus muricatus, &c. Putting aside these latter as being wood- 

 feeders, and therefore capable of being introduced by floating across the ocean, we 

 have the genera Galerita, Parandra, CEme, Smodicum, and others now containing 

 African species. This, however, is a subject which deserves more extended obser- 

 vation before any sound deduction can be drawn from it. 



Mr. W. Oliphant, Treasurer, R.P.S.E., exhibited the skull of a Manatus Scr.e- 

 nalensis (the Sea Cow), for which he was indebted to Mr. Thomson, from Old 

 Calabar. The skull, which was that of a young animal, the teeth not being fully 

 developed, was interesting, as it was from comparing their crania that Mr. F. Cuvier 

 had ascertained that the il/. Senegaleusis of the West Coast of Africa was a different 

 speeies from the M. Americamis, which frequents the rivers on the other side of the 

 Atlantic. He regretted not being able to make any addition to the rather scanty 

 knowledge we possess of the history and habits of this species, but mentioned a 



