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ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



Description of the Pausus. By 

 Doctor Adam Ajzelius. 



This genus does not exist in the 

 twelfth edition of the Systeina 

 ^Naturae, but made its first appear- 

 ance in a dissertation published at 

 Upsal, by Linnaeus, in the year 

 1775. At that period only one 

 species was known. In the year 

 1796, Dr. Adam Afzclius, then re. 

 siding at the British seltlcment at 

 Sierra Leona, discovered a second, 

 and has described both witii elabo- 

 rate exactness in a paper on this 

 genus, published in the fourth vo- 

 lume of the Transactions of the 

 liinnaean Society of London. To 

 this paper nothing can be objected 

 "but its extreme prolixity. I shall 

 therefore take the liberty of here re- 

 ducing it within reasonable com- 

 pass. The etymology of the name 

 Dr. Afzelins imagines to be from the 

 Greek vacvo-if, signifying a pause, 

 Cessation, or rest; for Linnseus, 

 now old andinfirm,andsinkingunder 

 the weight of age and labour, saw- 

 no probability of continuing any 

 longer his career of glory. He 

 might therefore be supposed to say 

 *' hie meta laborum,'' as it in re- 

 ality proved at least with regard to 

 insects; pausus being the last he 

 ever described. 



He named the insect pauws 

 microccphalus. The head is un- 

 commonly small ; the thorax 

 IjFoader than the head, and very 

 uneven, the two parts being entirely 

 separated by a transverse furrow ; 

 the foremost division is elevated 

 intoasharp ridge resembling a col- 

 lar, and the hindmost is depressed 

 <»r cut out in the middle into a 

 cavity, which is obtuse behind, 



dilated and deepened before, ancl 

 encompassed on the sides with di- 

 verging and outwardly declining 

 lobts, being rounded at the top, and 

 provided with shining hairs of a 

 fulvous colour and bent inwards v- 

 the elytra are v.ithoui dots, and 

 ratlicr longer than tlie abdomen ; 

 the under or real wings are sooty, 

 and without the least glossiness : the 

 abdomen has the terminal segment 

 very retuse, and the margin of the 

 next before it is visibly raised ; the 

 pivots of the antennai are bl<ack, 

 very bright, and at first sight might 

 be easily taken for eyes ; the under 

 joint is furnished with a wart on the 

 inner margin of the top, covered 

 with papillaiy or cartilaginous hairs : 

 the upper joint or clava is dotted, 

 much larger than the head, and of 

 the shape of an oblong s])heroid, 

 being rounded in front and com- 

 pressed, with the carina raised into 

 a sharp edge, provided on the ver- 

 tex with tour tubercles set in a row 

 and tipped with hairs, and elongat- 

 ed behind into an obtuse tube, 

 laterally compressed, above depres- 

 sed, and underneath having a knob, 

 which, in moving, touches the 

 bundle of hairs on the top of tho 

 under joint : the pedicle is long and 

 crooked, its upper part being 

 broader, compressed, and keeled in 

 front: tiie interior palpi are of a 

 lanceolate-oblong shape, and fur- 

 nished M'ith very minute hinges : the 

 mandibles have small hinges : and 

 the inferior sheath is much larger 

 than the superior: the hind-legs 

 are a little shorter than the others: 

 the ioints of the tarsi are diflicultly 

 distinguished. This rare insect is a 

 native of Banana islanfl, and Sierra 

 Leona in Africa. Its colour is a 

 blackish brown. 



The 



