34 



MEMOIRS OP 



youthful researches. Several fragments and memoirs, from 

 his pen, exist on this subject ; and among them is a paper, 

 written in Latin, at the age of twenty-one, while in the 

 chateau de Fiquanville, describing several Carabi,* and ac- 

 companied by illustrations, which were executed with the 

 utmost delicacy and fidelity. Several magnified details 

 were added to the text, which were prior to many after- 

 wards given as new by professed Entomologists. In the 

 same paper were delineations of other Coleoptera, and also 

 of several Hemiptera, and various insects accompanied by 

 descriptions. In 1791, M. Cuvier corresponded on the same 

 subject with MM. Fabiicius and Pfliff; and wrote various 

 papers concerning Pediculi and other parasitical insects. 

 Some drawings, probably made about this period, were 

 afterwards given by M. Cuvier to M. Lamarck, consisting 

 of the most beautiful representations of Crustacea, forming 

 twenty-three separate pages, and containing, among native 

 marine Crustacea, several exotic species. 



On coming to Paris, one of the first works communicated 

 to his friends by M. Cuvier was a memoir, on the formation 

 and use of a method in pursuing the study of natural 

 history, and which he applied most happily to insects. 

 This memoir was followed b}^ several more especial labours, 

 among which may be remarked, the description of a spe- 

 cies of wasp ( Vespa nidulans^) originally from Cayenne. 

 In this paper he corrected an error made by Reaumur, who 

 described and figured the Chalcis, a parasitical insect, living 

 in wasps' nests, as the female of the Vespa nidulans. 

 Soon after the appearance of the above, a very interesting 

 memoir was published on the Cloportes (Oniscus, Lin.) in 

 which some parts of the mouths of Crustacea were describ- 

 ed for the first time. This was soon followed by several 

 others ; one of the most remarkable of which was a critical 

 dissertation on the species of crabs known to the ancients, 

 and on the names then given to them. In the month of 

 September, 1797, M. Cuvier read, before the Institute, a 

 very curious dissertation on the manner in which insects 

 are nourished. Having established that the dorsal vessel 



+ A tribe of insects vrhich takes its place in the great order, most com-, 

 inonly known under the name of Beetles. 



