Roology. 149 
little fish. The beetle immediately made a dead set at the fish, which com- 
pletely paralysed the poor little animal ; for it was soon after seized near the 
tail by the beetle, without making any effort to escape, and never left till it 
was a perfect skeleton similar to numbers that he had previously found. — 
J. Elles. Feb, 1829, 
Tenacity of Life in the Weevil Tribe. — About a year ago, in the month of May, I captured, 
near Windsor, in the young sprouts of the willows, which grow in profusion in some places on 
the banks of the river, six weevils most resembling the Curcilio Z4pathi of Marsham. Having 
conveyed them home, I put them into spirits of wine for upwards of half an hour, a time which 
is sufficient to kill by far the greatest portion of insects; and afterwards having taken them out, 
I transfixed them with pins. In about ten minutes they were all alive, and writhing on the 
pins in a manner horrible to look at. I therefore put them a second time into spirits of wine for 
a longer time than the first. But having taken them out, very few minutes elapsed before two of 
them were again kicking about their legs ; so, totry what they would do, I took out the pins, and 
put them under a cocoa-nut shell, in the top of which there wasa hole. The one truly died, as well 
it might, but the other in a very short time crawled out at the hole in the top, and was soon as 
vigorous as it was previously to its being captured, and I then gave it its liberty. ‘The pins with which 
they were transfixed were of a large size. I also one day observed a weevil ona stalk of grass, 
which taking up and examining, I perceived a hole in the elytra, by which all the intestines, and 
even the very wings, and every thing except the shell had been extracted. There was an indi- 
vidual of the Carabus cipreus species on the same bit of grass, by whom I suspect it had been 
done. I found another weevil in a spider’s web served in the same manner. Both were appa- 
rently as active as they ever were.— C. Lambe. May 6. 1829. 
Hilaria forficule ( fig. 32.) — These specimens of intestinal worm were 
taken ‘last autumn 
from the Forficula 
auricularia, or com- 
mon earwig. Ihave 
very frequentlyfound 
them in this insect, 
and sometimes two or three in a single individual, each not less than 3 in. 
long. Thus the whole cavity of the abdomen of the earwig has been closely 
tenanted ; and, in some instances, I have found a portion of the worm within 
the trunk of the insect, whilst part remained in the abdomen. After being 
removed from their natural habitation they will sometimes live in water two 
or three hours ; but, exposed to the atmosphere, they die almost immediately. 
The worms of the genus Filaria, to which the present subjects belong, are 
known to infest animals of various denominations, beasts, birds, and insects ; 
and even the larve of insects: but the extreme simplicity of the structure 
of great part of them, as far as man can make himself acquainted, defies 
every attempt at specific distinctions, therefore they have been named after 
the subjects in which they are found, without the addition of trivial charac- 
ters. These I have labelled Filaria forficula. This white, or very pale 
yellow, opaque, threadlike inhabitant of the Forficula auricularia I have 
usually found from 3 in. to 4in. long. The specimens herewith sent were 
rather more when deposited in the spirit, which was effected immediately after 
their removal from their natural habitat. Your readers will have no difficulty 
in procuring subjects for their own examination. As connected with this 
pursuit it may not be amiss, in your Magazine, to recommend every one 
who is in the least degree interested therewith to provide himself with a 
wide-mouthed flint-glass bottle, of the size suited to the subjects generally 
collected. If this be partly filled with rectified spirit of wine, and kept as a 
common repository to receive specimens indiscriminately as they are col- 
lected, it will be the means of preserving many that would otherwise be lost 
on account of the trouble of providing separately for them at times when 
it may be inconvenient. Another advantage offered by this method is, that 
when specimens are taken from this stock-bottle, as it may be termed, and 
put into fresh spirit, they never tinge it with any colour, which will some- 
times happen with the fluid in which reptiles or insects are first deposited. 
—B. Maund. Bromsgrove, October 24. 1829. its 
The Polybrachion (many arms) is an animal described in vol. ii. of the 
Zoological Journal, by the Rev. Lansdown Guilding, and on which I send 
you a few remarks. From the vast variety and extent of nature’s pro- 
3 
