514 Mr. G. Newport on a new genus of Parasitic Insects. 



{Mole.) Antenrife four-jointedj basal joint arched, greatly dilated 

 and excavated on the under surface, second joint cylindrical, 

 third larp;e, globose, fourth elongated, oval* ; eyes stemmatous ; 

 wings abbreviated. Length 1 line. 

 Species. — A. retusa, Newp. Female bronze green, legs yellowish. 

 Male yellow or deep ferruginous, stemmata blackish ; larva sub- 

 cylindrical, formed of fourteen segments, and slightly attenu- 

 ated at each extremity. 



Pound in the cells of Anthophora at Richborough, Kent. 

 Although I had found this insect in all its stages of develop- 

 ment, had made carefully finished drawings of it, and of its de- 

 tails in 1831 and 1832, and had showed these at that time to 

 many friends, of which I have ample proof, I delayed to publish 

 any account of it until recently, because I had intended to have 

 done this in connexion with some facts of anatomy not yet put 

 forth. Being engaged, however, in investigating the relation 

 which subsists between the special anatomy of animals and the 

 peculiarities in their CEconomy and instincts, the male of this in- 

 sect appeared to me to offer a good exemplification of my views 

 in the peculiarities of its organs of vision, as compared with what 

 I had seen and known of its habits. But as I could not find any 

 description of the insect in any entomological work to which I 

 had access, it became necessary for me to characterize and name 

 it, that others might be able to identify it, before any references 

 to it could be of value to science. I did this in the first part of 

 a paper read to the Linnsean Society on the 20th of March last, 

 and the description above given was printed in the report of the 

 meeting of that Society insei'ted in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle * 

 for the 24th of March, No. 12, page 183. The description and 

 naming of the insect wei'e thus but incidental to the chief object 

 of my paper; and my claim to a scientific notification of the 

 genus and species can only take date from that period, although 

 I have known of the existence of this insect for nearly eighteen 

 years. The particulars given in my paper of the place and time 

 of its discovery were but as matters of history in connexion with 

 its habits. Imagine then my surprise at the close of the reading 

 of that portion of the paper at hearing the good faith of my state- 

 ments abruptly questioned in some remarks addressed to the 

 Society by INIr. John Obadiah Westwood, who made it appear that 

 my knowledge of the insect Anihophorabia must have been de- 

 rived from vivct voce statements made by himself at a meeting of 

 the Entomological Society in July 1847, when he referred to an 

 undescribed insect by the name of Melittobia Audouinii, and 



* It is probable that the large terminal joint of the antennae, both in the 

 male and female, may be formed by the luiion of two or more joints in one 

 mass. 



