Ceratitis citriperda. — Blaps obtasa. 199 



no doubt that an insect which I had hoped might prove a new species of 

 Latreille's Te/ihritis (and a pair of which I sent to him a short time back) 

 will turn out to be the same. In the colours, nervures, and marks of the 

 wings, and the sexual appendages of clavated horns, it precisely corre- 

 sponds with the figure. 



I first observed it at rest, as though basking, and with the wings ex- 

 panded, on the leaves of some thick shrubs, in the garden of the English 

 church. In the surrounding gardens were orange, lemon, and other 

 fruit-trees, but not in that where I found it, and which it was afterwards 

 in the habit of frequenting. It had the manners and appearance of an 

 insect of very confined locomotive powers and activity, and I have sel- 

 dom seen it upon the wing further than passing from one shrub to another, 

 and never upon flowers, or with the attitude and appearance of one 

 either eating or searching after food. I should infer, therefore, as well 

 as from the general habit, if that be not too empirical, that it is short- 

 lived and eats little or nothing in its perfect state. 



The insect is by no means uncommon with us, and I have subsequently 

 taken it on the orange-tree, and many others. On the 14ih of February, 

 182S, I find, by referring to a note-book, that " several were hatched 

 " {rom pupcB found in a decayed lemon.'''' I have also a distinct recol- 

 lection of having hatched them from peaches,* but as I cannot find the 

 circumstance mentioned, I must leave it to fature investigation. The 

 principal object I have in mentioning the insect now, is to induce others 

 to look for it in other fruits besides the orange, to which I suspect it will 

 prove not to be confined. I am looking anxiously for Mr. MacLeay's 

 promised details. I trust that now he has turned his attention to them, 

 the interesting group to which it belongs will be well elucidated. 



Mr. Curtis, I see, (British Entomology, No. 148) gives as Blaps oh- 

 tusa. Fab., Bl. similis, Lat., and Bl. lethifera. Marsh, an insect which, 

 from his own shewing, cannot, I think, be the first of the three, and 

 answers only indifferently in figure to the second. In his figure and de- 



* Six or eight which I have of a variety, (smaller and paler, but diflti iii(f in 

 no other respect,) were certainly not hatched from oranges. 



