Cantharis vesicatoria is not only a liandsome but a useful 

 beetle, being invaluable for its medicinal and vesicatory pro- 

 perties when employed as a stimulant or to produce blisters ; 

 for these purposes it is collected in Spain for exportation, and 

 is an important article of commerce. In visking the South of 

 France where two species of the curious and beautiful Cero- 

 coma were abundant, also Epicmita verticalis^ 111., and six or 

 seven species of Mi/labres, I expected frequently to meet with 

 C. vesicatoria, but I found only one specimen and Mr.Walker 

 took 2 or 3 others. In England it is reckoned a rare insect, 

 yet occasionally it makes its appearance in vast quantities. 

 The following extract from Drury's Illustrations of Nat. Hist. 

 will show that its visits were at remote periods in his time : 

 " I have seen," he says, " in the cabinet of a very curious lady, 

 sister to Ralph Willet, Esq. of Dean Street, Soho, not less than 

 40 of this species (the Spanish-fly), being taken near his seat at 

 Morley Place near Wimbourne in Dorsetshire, where she 

 informed me they were found in great plenty during the month 

 of June or July, frequenting the privet-trees. I have also found 

 them in the environs of London, but not plentifully." 



I remember five or six specimens having been taken in and 

 near Norwich about twenty years since, and Mr. T. Desvignes 

 tells me that a very great number were found in a wood near 

 that city last year, when it seems to have made its appearance 

 in many parts of the kingdom, specimens being found near 

 Christchurch in Hampshire and Colchester in Essex by 

 Dr. Maclean, who gave me a beautiful example more tinged 

 with copper than our British specimens usually are ; I am also 

 indebted to Mr. L. Brock for a very fine series, varying 

 greatly in size, selected from several hundreds found feeding 

 on the Weeping-ash, I believe in the same neighbourhood. 

 Linnaeus says that C. vesicatoria inhabits the Privet, Ash, 

 Elder, Lilac, and Honey-suckle, upon the leaves of which it 

 feeds. The larvae live in the earth and eat the roots of plants. 

 In the 9th vol. of the Annales du Musee is an admirable 

 memoir by M. Audouin, upon the anatomy, &c. of this valu- 

 able beetle. 

 The Plant is Hippocrepis comosa, Tufted Horse-shoe Vetch. 



