1480 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTJCETUM. 



PART 



perhaps, brushing them over at that period with some coal tar " may, by its 

 smell, which is known to be offensive to all insects, deter any from settling on 

 the trees for some days or weeks. In Jig. 1289.,/shows the Iarva3 of Nitidula 



grisea ; g, one of the same larvse magnified ; h, the pupa of the Nitidula grisea ; 

 i, the pupa magnified ; k, the perfect insects ; and /, the perfect insect magnified. 

 (Liu. Trans., vol. i. p. 89.) 



Cryptorhynchus lapathi is exceedingly abundant in the osier beds near 

 Barnes and Mortlake. In the perfect state, it is very sluggish, remaining 

 nearly stationary upon the leaves and slender twigs, to which it attaches 

 itself very firmly, by means of its broad cushioned tarsi, and probably, also, by 

 the bent hook at the extremity of the tibiae. Several interesting particulars 

 are recorded relative to this species in Hewitt's Book of the Seasons. In 

 the late Mr. Haworth's Revieiu of Entomology, published in the first part 

 of the old Entomological Society's Transactions, is given an extract from the 

 Ashmolean Appendix to Hay's Historia Insectorum, relative to the " C'urculio 

 lapathi of Linnaeus, the ancient spelling of which appears to have been 

 Gurgulio ; which species was selected for two reasons ; " the one, because it is 

 a well-known insect; and the other, because, according to this ingenious author, 

 it possesses, though feebly, the faculty of voice; which is a piece of informa- 

 tion for which I am altogether indebted to this tract." " Lacessitus vocem 

 quaerulam dedit." The sound here alluded to is produced by the friction 

 of the hollowed base of the thorax against the elevated front of the elytra. 



This insect, which is the Curculio lapathi of Linnaeus (Syst. Nat.~,i\. 608. 

 20. ; Rhynchae^nus lapathi of Fabricius, Syst. Eleuth., ii. 466., and Gyllenhall 

 and the Cryptorhjnchus lapathi of Illiger and Stephens), varies in length from 

 % in. to in. It is of an opaque dirty black colour, with the sides of the thorax, 

 and the base and apical portion of the elytra clothed with white scales ; the 

 thorax and elytra being also ornamented with minute tufts of black scales. 

 It feeds, also, upon the alders and sharp dock (#umex aciitus), according 

 to Gyllenhall. Kirby and Spence, however, appear to doubt the correctness 

 of this last habitat, considering the name lapathi to have been given to the 

 insect by mistake; observing that, as "docks often grow under willows, the 

 mistake in question might easily have happened." (Introd. to Ent., i. p. 196. 

 note.) 



In thesalictum in the Botanic Garden at Oxford, we are informed by Mr. 



