Entomologisehe Naehriehten. 



Begründet von Dr. F. Katter in Putbus. 



Herausgegeben 



von Dr. Ferd. Karsch in Berlin. 



XX. Jahrg. Juni 1894. No. 11. 



Pulex Imperator Westwood. 



Prof. Taschenberg's note in the last No. (7) of the 

 „Nachrichten" induces me to publish a copy of the original 

 notices concerning this imperial flea. 



At the meeting of the Entoraological Society of London 

 in May 4. 1857 it is in record — Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 

 new series, Vol. IV, p. 70 — that „Mr. Westwood exhibited 

 a gigantic species of flea, for which he proposed the specific 

 name of imperator. The specimen , which is about twenty 

 times the size of the common Tulex irritans, was found 

 dead in a bed at Gateshead." 



At the meeting of March 7. 1859 it was stated — op. 

 cit. Vol. V, p. 60 — that he exhibited an insect which 

 he had reeeived some time previously from Dr. Backhouse, 

 of Gateshead, as a gigantic flea, and which he had exhibited 

 to the Society on the 4. of May 1857 (whitout howewer, 

 having previously bad an opportunity of carefully examining 

 it), and for which he then suggested the name of Pulex 

 imperator. He had howewer, recently examined the insect 

 more minutely, and had ascertained that it was the very 

 young larva of a Blatta, much distorted by being crushed 

 flat in rather an oblique position, and with most of the 

 limbs broken off. A sraall portion of the base of the multi- 

 annular antennae was visible in such a Situation as to seem 

 like a part of the mouth, but on microscopically examining 

 it, as well as the portions of the legs still remaining, it 

 became evident that the insect was not a flea, and on 

 dissecting the mouth its true character was at once de- 

 tected." 



I was present on the occasion when the correction was 

 made, and can vouch for its having been done in all seri- 

 ousness and accompanied by explanatory drawings. West- 

 wood himself never affected publicly, to treat it as a 



11 



