124< NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



felt as high as his shoulders ; and, dropping the crea- 

 ture, he observed six marks upon his hand, where the 

 six feet had stood." We expect the bug must have 

 been recently feeding upon the Gymnotus electricus J 

 Although there is considerable uniformity of general 

 contour in these insects, some, nevertheless, present pe- 

 culiar differences of structure ; for instance, Notocyrtus 

 has its thorax exceedingly inflated above ; and the 

 before-mentioned Prionotus serratus has the prothorax 

 longitudinally compressed into a raised semicircle ex- 

 tending over the scutellum, the edge of which is notched; 

 whence it is called in the West Indies the " wheel 

 bug," and it also thence derives its specific name. The 

 transverse suture of the head and thorax, in many of 

 these insects, is very like what we see in the coleo- 

 pterous genus Paussus ; and one of the latter, the 

 P. armatus, in the spine of its head, has an analogy to 

 the spine upon the head of the Nahis lividus of 

 Latreille. A further resemblance between the two is 

 the ocelli said to be observed in several species of 

 Paussi. In some, — Pirates, for instance, — the anterior 

 and intermediate tibiae are dilated at their apex beneath, 

 into a vesicular sole ; this structure gives them a facility 

 for adhering with greater tenacity to what they wish to 

 attach themselves. A small and very elegant species 

 of Holoptilus, from New Holland, has its antennse 

 densely fringed with hair, and the posterior tibiae still 

 more thickly so with longer curled hair ; which, from 

 that peculiarity, look exceedingly like the legs of the 

 genus Ancyloscelis among the bees. The refinement of 

 modern science will, probably, form this into a new 

 genus ; the proportions of the two last joints of the 

 antennae differing from the typical Holoptilus, the penul- 

 timate joint being curved, and the terminal one clavate, 

 and inserted before the apex of the preceding. Coranus 

 subapterus, and Prostemma guttula, which are British 

 insects, offer us instances in this group, also, of perfect 

 insects in a sub-apterous state. There are three genera 

 in this family which we must still notice, from their 



