from the Island of Ascension, 301 



phalus, and Pentarthrum) almost certainly, imported. But let 

 us take them seriatim. 



Fam. Dermestidae. 



Genus Dermestes. 



Linnjeus, Syst. Nat. ii. 561 (1767). 



1. Dei'mestes cadaverinus, Fab. 



Dermestes cadaverinus. Fab., Svst. Ent. 55 (1775). 



■ , Oliv., Ent. ii. 9. 3 (1790). 



domesticus, Gebl., Germ. Spec. 85. 143 (1824). 



cadaverinus, Ericbs., Nat. der Ins. Deutscb. iii. 430 (1848). 



Many examples of this Dermestes were brought to England 

 by Mr. Bewicke. It seems, from his account, to be a most 

 abundant insect at Ascension, " swarming in houses and under 

 stones," and being " pretty generally distributed over the island.'* 

 According to Mr. Bewicke, " the people call them ' hardbacks/ 

 and say that they only appear in the turtle season." After a 

 careful examination of them, I cannot see that they dilFer in any 

 respect from the D. cadaverinus of Fabricius — a species which 

 was originally described by him, in 1775, from St. Helena spe- 

 cimens in the Banksian collection, and which has been recorded, 

 also, from Europe, South America, Mexico, Otaheite, the East 

 Indies, and Arabia. It belongs to the second of Erichson's 

 Sections, in which the third and fourth abdominal segments of 

 the males (instead of the fourth only) are furnished beneath with 

 a little circular fossctte armed with a cone (or convergent fasci- 

 culus) of powerful bristles. In specific details, it may be known 

 from its several allies by its (black) upper-surface being uni- 

 formly and rather densely clothed with a coarse yellowish-cine- 

 reous pile, by its rather elongate (and slightly narrow) outline, 

 and by its abdominal under-segments having, each of them, two 

 somewhat rounded patches of darker pile in their centre (gra- 

 dually diminishing and approximating in each successive segment 

 towards the apex), and a sublunate one at either lateral edge. 



Genus Attagenus. 

 Latreille, Gen. Crust, et Ins. ii. 33 (1803). 

 3. Attagenus Gloriosce, Fab. 

 Anthrenus Gloriosce, Fab., Syst. Eleutb. i. 107 (1801). 

 Five specimens of this prettily fasciated Attagenus were taken 

 by Mr. Bewicke at Ascension. It is an almost cosmopolitan 

 insect, being easily diffused through the medium of commerce. 

 It occurs principally in India and Eastern Africa ; but I am in- 

 formed by my friend Dr. Schaum of Berlin that it has also been 

 found in America. 



