Dr. Heineken o/i Cermatia. 4! 



jVote on the Hegeter Wchbianus. By the Rev. W. Kirby. 



I have great doubts whether this insect is distinct from Heg. striatus. 

 Latreille gives TenerifFe as its habitat, and describes the elytra as 

 juisulcata, which indicates that they are slightly furrowed. I have a 

 specimen from Madeira only six lines long, which brings it near Mr. 

 Webb's specimens, and the thorax is subsinuated behind ; so that there 

 remains scarcely any distinction except that of size, now reduced, and 

 that the elytra instead of suhsuleata are obsoleiissime suhsulcata, which 

 may be casual. 



Art. IX. Oh Cermatia. /^y C. IIeinkkkn, AI.D., ^c. 



Latreille cautions the entomological aspirant against making even a 

 species (" meme une esp^ce"), " sans y avoir murement reflechi ;" but 

 as I am not aware that equal forbearance is either expected or requisite in 

 the unmaking process, I may perhaps be allowed the attempt, even though 

 it should appear that I have not " maturely" considered the subject : a 

 condition much more easily fulfilled to our own content, than to the satis- 

 faction of others. 



In the third volume of the Zoological Miscellany, page 38, is a de- 

 scription of the Cermatia livida, and No. 136 is the plate of the same. 

 Madeira is given for its habitat, and as in the course of several years, and 

 amongst some dozens of specimens either seen or preserved by me, (they 

 are common in our houses,) not even a variety has occurred, I think I 

 need not hesitate in saying that we have only one species of Cermatia, 

 and consequently that the Cermatia livida of Dr. Leach is that one. 



Fig. a of the accompanying Plate [Tab. IT. fig. 6.] is our Cermatia when 

 alive, and it will readily be conceived that I was not a little puzzled to recon- 

 cile it with either the description or figure in the Miscellany. However, 

 upon examining some which had been for a length of time preserved in 

 spirits, and then exposed to the air for a few hours, as I suppose Dr. Leach's 

 to have been before the drawing was made, I tbund them as represented by 

 Fig. b ; and as they then agreed with the description, and corresponded 



