303 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [Oct. 



which is distinguished from the others by its pectoral fins being 

 hollowed out like the wings of bats. 



M. Risso, naturalist at Nice, who published two years ago an 

 excellent work on the fishes of that coast, hast just sent another 

 to the Class on the crustaceae, that is to say, on the animals of 

 the crab family. M. Risso adopts in his arrangement the me- 

 thod of Latreille, to which he adds four new genera. He de- 

 scribes 100 species, about the half of which appear new to him: 

 16 are represented in coloured plates. The Class, in applaud- 

 ing the zeal with which M. Risso, in a situation so unpropi- 

 tious, has endeavoured to make known the animals of the Me- 

 diterranean, still so little studied, would at the same time have 

 desired more precision in the descriptions, before acknowledg- 

 ing the novelty of so great a number of species. 



The ancients speak much of an insect which they call 

 huprestes, or hurst-ox, because, according to them, it made the 

 cattle burst who swallowed it with the grass ; but they have 

 given us no detailed description of it. The moderns have ap- 

 plied this name very variously ; nor does it appear that any of 

 them has recognised the insect to which it truly belonged. M. 

 Latreille, after a careful comparison of the passages in which the 

 properties ascribed to it are mentioned with what we know at 

 present, thinks that it was probably the meloe proscaralceus of 

 Linnaeus, or some similar species. The meloe are the only insects 

 possessing acrid and suspicious properties that live among the 

 grass, and move so slowly as to be easily swallowed by cattle. 



Our associate M. de la Billardiere, who employs himself in 

 bringing up bees, having observed one whose abdomen was 

 larger than usual, found in it a white worm, which M. Bosc 

 examined. The body of this worm was white, divided into 12 

 rings, flattened below, terminated at one extremity by two large 

 tubercles, pierced each with an oval hole, and at the other by 

 two soft points. Under the tubercles is a transverse slit. M. 

 Bosc, regarding this slit as the mouth, considers the part ter- 

 minated by two points as that where ought to be the anus; and 

 ranging the animal among intestinal worms, he makes a new 

 genus of it, under the name of d'podii/m. He admits, however, 

 that it is possible that the organs may in fact be reversed, and 

 then the worm would much resemble the larva? of flies with two 

 wings. There is reason to believe, from the observations of 

 Latreille, that the larva of one of these flies (the canops ferru- 

 ginosa) lives in the interior of the drones. It is very remark- 

 able that so large a worm should inhabit the body of an insect 

 so small as a bee. 



The portion of digestion which takes place in the stomach 

 must have early attracted the attention of physiologists, and 

 recourse was had successively to all the powers of nature to 



