120 



APRIL. 



black on the upper surface, but sometimes 

 tinged with green, or olivaceous ; the under 

 side mostly inclines to green, of various shades. 

 The elytra and thorax of the vernalis are al- 

 most always blue or violet, and underneath 

 the breast, abdomen and legs are splendidly 

 tinged with violet, peuce, and blue. Mr. Curtis, 

 in his description of the Isevis, in a recent num- 

 ber of his excellent work on " British Ento- 

 mology," mentions, I suppose as a specific 

 character, the denticulated margin of the pos- 

 terior femora : this, in all probability, will only 

 prove a sexual distinction, as I have this spring 

 captured about seventy specimens, and found 

 it to exist in only thirty. It is also not con- 

 fined to this species, for in thirty-four speci- 

 mens of the vernalis, taken but a few days ago 

 on Sherwood Forest, it exists in fourteen. 



Anobium tessellatum, (Death-watch.) The 

 peculiar noise which this little beetle makes by 

 beating its head in rapid succession against the 

 wood it inhabits, has been regarded amongst 

 the superstitious as an omen of death. It is 

 generally in April and May when its knockings 

 are most frequent ; and it is now generally un- 

 derstood to be a signal by which they are en- 



