MEMOIR OF LATREILLE. 27 



into his place of confinement, and upon making 

 inquiry he was informed by the prisoner that the 

 insect was very rare, and that he was desirous of 

 sending it to two young naturalists then residing in 

 Bordeaux. His wishes were complied with, and 

 the insect was transmitted to MM. Dargelas and 

 Bory de Saint- Vincent. Latreille's eminence as an 

 entomologist happened to be previously known to 

 these individuals, and they immediately exerted 

 themselves in his favour, and that with such suc- 

 cess, that he was ultimately released. He has grate- 

 fully commemorated this singular incident in more 

 than one of his works. A figure of the insect is 

 engraved on his tomb ; and most of the entomo- 

 logists of France preserve, in a conspicuous part of 

 their cabinets, the Necrobie-Latreille, in grati- 

 tude for the service it rendered to their master. 

 Nay, the more sentimental of them, feeling even 

 this to be an inadequate indication of the emotion 

 of their hearts, have an inscription attached to it, 

 intimating that they asked and obtained from the 

 hands of their honoured master, the specimen ex- 

 tibia? slender, without spines : tarsi four-jointed, the joints di- 

 lated and membranous at the apex ; the unguicular one long 

 and slender. 



The species ruficoUis is oblong ovate, covered with long hairs, 

 shining : eyes and antennas black : head blue-green, punc- 

 tured: thorax somewhat quadrate, with the sides rounded, 

 rufous, punctate : elytra rufous at the base, the rest greenish- 

 blue, with eight punctured striae on each, the interstices finely 

 shagreened ; thorax beneath and breast rufous, abdomen black ; 

 legs rufous. 



