^»» OBSERVATIONS ON THE 



This is by far the the most beautiful British species of the 

 order, and is one of the most common ; it may be said to swarm 

 on the juniper-bushes in Birchwood, and many other situations 

 in the south of England ; yet so much neglected has this order 

 of insects been, that 1 cannot find that it has been named or 

 described, or was even known before I took it by hundreds in 

 Birchwood, in March, 1830. — (To be continued.^' 



Art. XXXI. — Observations on the Saltatorial Powers of 

 Insects, and upon the British Coleopterous Ge7ius, Choragus. 

 By J. O. Westwood, Esq. F.L.S. &c. 



Amongst the various means which have been bestowed by 

 an allwise Creator upon the little animals which are the pecu- 

 liar objects of our attention, for the purpose of aiding them 

 either in escaping from the numberless enemies to which they 

 are exposed, or of facilitating their means of obtaining food, 

 the power which many of them possess of affecting an in- 

 stantaneous change of place, is one of the most interesting ; 

 enabling them to leap to a distance, which, in proportion to 

 their individual size, cannot but appear of extraordinary extent, 

 when we consider that it is often several hundred times longer 

 than the whole length of the insect's body ; thus almost vieing 

 with the movements of that renowned friend of our childhood 

 — he of the seven-league boots. 



This motion is effected in different insects in different man- 

 ners. Thus the well-known larvae of the fly which infests 

 cheese and bacon (the Piophila Casei of Meigen, &c. — a 

 species which, although far too common, has been the subject 

 of much confusion in systematic nomenclature. — See Stephens 

 Cat. Introd. p. xiii.), performs its astonishing leaps in the same 

 manner (as Messrs. Kirby and Spence well observe), as the 

 salmon, by taking hold of its tail with its mouth, contracting 

 the rings of its body, and then suddenly letting go its tail. A 

 somewhat similar manoeuvre is effected by the caterpillars 

 of some moths, as the Noctua quadra and Pyralis rostralis. 



The voracious masked larvse of the dragon flies are also 

 endowed with the power of suddenly propelling themselves 



