NATURAL HISTORY. 



825 



The second species, or pausus 

 sphwrocerus^ is thus described by 

 Dr. Afzi'lius. 



" I hive been in Africa almost 

 " three years before I happened to 

 "meet with this remarkable Jittle 

 " insect ; and then it was quite ac. 

 " cidentally. Tiierc was a liouse 

 " building for the governor, on an 

 " eminence called Thornton Hill, at 

 *' the South end of Free-Town, in 

 " Sierra Leona; and in the begin- 

 *' ning of the year 1795 several 

 " apartments having been got ready, 

 ^' so as to be habitable, one of them 

 *' was allotted to mc, and I remov- 

 " ed into it in the end of the month 

 *' of January. I had not resided 

 *' there many days, when one 

 " evening, having just lighted my 

 " candle and begun to write, 1 ob- 

 " served something dropj)ing down 

 *' from the ceiling before me upon 

 '' the table ; which, from its singular 

 *' appearance, attracted my par- 

 ' " licular attention. It remained for 

 " a little while quite immoveable, 

 " as if stunned or frightened, but 

 " began soon to crawl very slowly 

 *' and steadily. 1 then caught it, and, 

 ** from the remembrance I had of 

 " the Linnxan species, I directly 

 " took it for a non dcscript of this 

 " genus. Some few days after, 

 *' coming into my room from supper, 

 •♦' with a light in my hand, and 

 ^' having put it upon the table, 

 *' there instantly fell another down 

 *' from the ceiling. 'J'he third I 

 *' was favoured with by the then 

 ** governor, Mr. Dawes, who in- 

 f formed ine that it had dropped 

 *' down before him on the table, 

 *' just when he had entered his 

 ^* room, and was going to write. 

 *' The other three, which I after- 

 *' wards collected, were also got 

 ^* upoa skuilur occasions, and from 



thence I thought I liad some 

 reason to conclude that it is a 

 nocturnal animal, that it becomes 

 benumbed by candle-light, that it 

 lives in wood, and prefers new- 

 built houses, <S;c. After the end 

 of February I never saw any 

 more. The last which 1 caught 

 I put into a box, and left confin- 

 ed (here for a day or two. One 

 evening, going to look at it, and 

 happening to stand between the 

 light and the box, so that my 

 shadow fell upon the insect, I 

 observed to my great astonish- 

 ment, the globes of the antenna?, 

 like two lanthorns, spreading a 

 dim phosphoric light. This 

 singular phenomenon raised my 

 curiosity, and, after having ex- 

 amined it several times that night, 

 1 resolved to repeat my researches 

 the following day. But the 

 animal, being exhausted, died be- 

 lore the morning, and the light 

 disa()peared. And afterwards, 

 not being able to find any more 

 specimens, I was prevented from 

 ascertaining the fact by reiterated 

 experiments at different times ; 

 which 1 therefore must recommend 

 to othernaturalists who may have 

 an opportunity of visiting Sierra 

 Leona, requesting that they would 

 particularly enquire into this 

 curious circumstance. I shall 

 now only add some icw remarks, 

 shewing in what manner this new 

 species diifers from the old one- 

 i\ot being quite so broad, it looks 

 as if it were longer, and more 

 cylindrical: it is also of a lighter 

 or chesnut colour, and all over 

 very glossy. The head is larger, 

 but its annular base part smaller, 

 and contracted ; it is furnished 

 with a little horn in the middle, 

 between the eyes, which is straight, 



conic. 



