CANTHARUS 



689 



tery much in its she, being sometimes not more 

 than half an inch long, whilst others are twice that 

 length. It is exceedingly rare in Britain, but has 

 been occasionally taken near Cheltenham and else- 

 \vhere. Our figure is taken from a fine British spe- 

 cimen, purchased at the sale of Mr. Donovan's 

 collection. It is of a golden or brassy green co- 

 lour, very shining, and delicately punctured, with 

 the antennae (except the first joint) black. W. P. 

 Audouin has published a valuable memoir upon this 

 insect in the Annales des Sciences Nafurelles, vol. ix., 

 in which he has detailed in a very minute manner 

 the external and internal anatomy, the sexual organi- 

 sations &c. He states that the other species of this 

 genus are numerous, being found in the south of 

 Europe, Greece, China, India, and America, and 

 very varied ; but that since the time of Fabricius and 

 Olivier, no one has undertaken their determination 

 and description. The mandibles of the common spe- 

 cies are strong, and terminated in a broad and oblique 

 point, they are without teeth ; but at the internal 

 margin, below the middle, is to be observed a large 

 notch filled with a yellowish membrane, which has 

 escaped the notice of authors, but which is also 

 found in various other hetcromerous beetles. The 

 legs also offer a curious peculiarity which do not 

 appear to have been noticed before ; in the female, 

 the shanks (tibiae) of all the legs, are terminated by 

 two small moveable points or spurs, and the basal 

 joint of the tarsi offers no material character ; but in 

 the males, although this character exists in the four 

 hind legs, the two fore legs are terminated only by a 

 large and strong spur, and the basal joint of the tarsi 

 in this pair is strongly notched, so that the spur which 

 is moveable, on being applied to the base of the tarsi 

 exactly closes this notch, forming it into a sort of 

 noose ; this curious construction is employed by the 

 males in coupling, to seize and retain hold of the 

 antennae of the females, a circumstance also noticed 

 by Mr. Sowerby, to occur in Mcloe. 



But little is known of the early history of this 

 insect. The female deposits her eggs separately, 

 forming them into an agglutinated mass, they are 

 buried under ground, and the larva? there undergo 

 their changes. It has been stated to feed upon the 

 roots of vegetables, and to be soft and of a whitish 

 colour, having six short legs. The descriptions given 

 of the insect in this state are, however, very vague. 



The perfect insect, although rare amongst us, must 

 abound to a great extent in Spain and the south of 

 France, where it appears about the summer solstice, 

 being most abundant upon the ash and lilac, of which 

 it devours the leaves, emitting 1 a very penetrating 

 odour somewhat resembling that of mice. This scent 

 therefore leads to their discovery by the persons who 

 collect them for medicinal purposes. When dead 

 they are so light that fifty scarce weigh a drachm. 

 It is necessary, however, to take various precautions 

 in collecting them, since the odorous particles exhaled 

 by them are very corrosive, that people have been 

 violently affected whilst gathering them during 

 the heat of the day with bare hands, or even 

 when thev have fallen asleep under trees, where 

 swarms of" them had settled. The ordinary mode of 

 collecting these insects is to lay cloths under the 

 trees where they abound, upon which they fall, upon 

 the trees being violently shaken, they are killed by 

 the vapour of vinegar, or they are collected in linen 

 cloths previously steeped in" vinegar. When dead 

 NAT. HIST. VOL. I. 



they are carefully dried by exposure to the sun, or 

 by lying in well ventilated apartments, being stirred 

 about with short sticks or by the hand, covered 

 however with gloves, since without this precaution 

 the persons employed would be seriously affected by 

 handling them. It is essential that they should receive 

 a perfect degree of desiccation, otherwise they would 

 contract a fetid odour, and be rendered unfit for 

 medicinal purposes. They are preserved in close 

 boxes or barrels, the insides of which arc carefully 

 covered with paper. It is not essential in this place 

 to enter into a detailed notice of the well known 

 medicinal properties of this insect, or the symptoms 

 and mode of treatment when taken internally, or 

 applied externally. It may be sufficient to state, 

 that in the former case its powers arc highly stimu- 

 lating and dangerous, and that in the latter they first 

 inflame, and afterwards excoriate the skin, raiding a 

 more perfect blister than any of the vegetable acids, 

 and occasioning a more plentiful discharge of serum. 



The Chinese employ another insect of this family 

 Mylabris pustulata, for purposes similar to those of 

 the Cantharis vcsicatoria, whilst in North America the 

 Lytta vittata, or potato-fly, and some other species ap- 

 pear to possess properties analogous to canthaiides. 

 For further details we mu-t, however, refer our readers 

 to the papers of Drs. Chapman and Woodhouse in 

 the New York Medical Repository, vols. ii. and Hi., 

 and those of Drs. Schott and Dana'in the Eclectic Re- 

 pertory, vol. ii. The latter contains an analysis of 

 the potato-fly, showing that cantharidam exists in it. 



The other genera introduced into this family by 

 Latreille are Cerocoma, Hyclceus, Mylabris, JEnas, 

 Meloe, Tetraonyx, Zonilis, Nemognatha, Gnathium and 

 Sifaris. Mr. Stephens has added another British 

 genus named Sybaris. 



The anatomical observations of M. Dufour, and 

 the interesting researches of M. Bretonneau of Tours 

 upon the properties of these tribes, allow us to dis- 

 pose of these groups in a natural order, nearly agree- 

 ing with that stated above. The latter author having 

 found that Sitaris is not vesicant, and the former, that 

 it only possesses four instead of six biliary vessels, 

 instead of six as in the rest of the family. They, 

 however, in other respects, are nearly allied to zonitis, 

 which are close to cantharis, so that by terminating 

 the series with sitaris, it is easy by a comparison of 

 other characters to ascend the series until we arrive 

 at the other extremity, this progression moreover 

 according with the progressive changes in the form 

 of the antennae. We shall notice the more remarkable 

 of the above-mentioned genera in their alphabetical 

 places. 



CANTHARUS. A genus of spinous-finned fishes 

 belonging to the Sparoidea:, or gilt-head family, but dif- 

 fering from the characteristic genera of the family in 

 having teeth all round the jaws ; those of the external 

 row the largest, of a conical form, and more or less 

 hooked. The body is elevated and thick ; the jaws 

 without any projectile motion ; and the muscle short 

 and rather blunt. There are two species, both in the 

 Atlantic and the Mediterranean. 



CANTHAIIUS VDLGARIS (Spams Cantharus of Lin- 

 naeus). The general colour of this one is silver-grey, 

 with longitudinal stripes of brown on the sides, and 

 some small straight ones behind the bent ones. 



CANTHARUS BRAMA (Spams Brama of Linnaeus). 

 Nearly the same colour as the former but with all 

 the teeth bent. 



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