160 



TWO INSECT-PRODUCTS FROM PERSIA. 



1859. 



Description. 



Lannus 



tnaculatiis. 



Habitat. 



built into them; and, more rarely, one finds portions of the 

 flowering heads of the plant, a species of EcMnops, similarly 

 inclosed. Many of the cocoons are open at one end and empty ; 

 others have a longitudinal aperture, originally closed by the 

 stalk of the plant, and still contain the insect ; a few are en- 

 tirely closed. Specimens of this insect, extracted from the 

 cocoons sent to Paris were examined in 1856 by my friend Mr. 

 W. Wilson Saunders, who pronounced them to be Larinus 

 maculatus of Faldermanu, a determination also arrived at by 

 M. Jekel from specimens presented by Mr. Loftus to the British 

 Museum. Eespecting these latter, one of which is represented 

 in Fig. 1, M. Jekel makes the following remarks: 



" LARINUS MACULATUS, Faldermann, Faun. Transcauc. ii. p. 228, 

 449, tab. 6. f, 10, et iii. p. 198. Schonh. Gen. et Sp. Curcul. iii. 

 p. 112 et vii. 2. p. 7. Hochhuth, Bull Moscow, 1847 No. 2. 

 p. 538 (var. 7). 



"Var. 7. Larin. Onopordinis, Sch. loc. cit. iii. p. Ill (excl. 

 synon.). 



" Of this species, Mr. Loftus captured several specimens, all 

 of small size : from some of them the pollinosity had been rub- 

 bed off, as is represented in the figure by Mr. Ford (vide Fig. 1), 

 which shows only a part of the inferior layer of tomentum and 

 the greyish ground of the dorsal and lateral maculae ; the latter, 

 being the most densely coloured in fresh specimens, are always 

 the most persistent. These belong to Schonherr's var. 7, which 

 that author formerly regarded as the Larinus Onopordinis, Fabr. 

 Others of Mr. Loftus's specimens, which are very fresh, belong to 

 Var. /3 ; none to the typical variety, which is often larger in 

 size. 



" This species has a very extended habitat : I have received it 

 from European Turkey (Frivaldski), Beyrouth, Caucasus, Persia 

 (Dupont), &c. &c. ; and it is recorded by Schonherr as also found 

 in Barbary and Portugal. 



" This is the insect which proceeds from the rough chalky- 

 looking nidus figured by Mr. Ford. Vide Fig. 2." 



The entomological question being so far disposed of, I may 

 be permitted a few remarks upon the properties which have ob- 

 tained for Tre"hala a place among drugs and dietetic substances. 



The first author who gives any account of the substance is 



