3894 Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. 



Mr. Jeffrey), and it was evident that a very great resemblance existed between them 

 and the insects of this country. One or two British specimens of the same species 

 were placed on coloured paper immediately after some of the American specimens, in 

 order that the members might have an opportunity of comparing them ; and in these 

 instances they appeared to be nearly the same. There are a considerable number of 

 insects which are common both to North America and Europe. Kirby, in Richard- 

 son's ' Fauna Boreali-Americana,' describes forty-nine beetles as identical. So far as 

 Mr. M.'s observation went, he was of opinion that they were too close to be specifically 

 separated ; but still that there is a slight difference, which enables a practised eye to 

 detect which is American and which is British : but such variations were looked upon 

 by Mr. M. as the effect of the difference of food and climate. The next division in 

 the boxes contained the insects taken on the east flank of the Rocky Mountains, and 

 among them were two or three very beautiful undescribed Carabi. The last division 

 comprised those from the west flank of the Rocky Mountains, most of which also are 

 undescribed. Among them were a few specimens of a representative of our blister-fly, 

 and next to these, on coloured paper, was placed the common blister-fly of Europe. A 

 considerable number of these beetles was received, in fact, a greater proportion of them 

 than of any other species ; from which it was inferred by Mr. M. that they are found 

 in large numbers, in the same way as they are in Europe, and that when a great em- 

 pire shall have grown up on the west of the Rocky Mountains, the apothecaries of its 

 cities would be supplied with this essential article from their own hills. That the spe- 

 cies has the same blistering properties as the European insect, Mr. M. had not the 

 least doubt : the specimens of course are too few and too valuable to allow of any of 

 them being pounded to make the experiment, but the whole of the spirits in which the 

 insects came home was tinged by them of their own greenish hue. The only other in- 

 sects in the lot which particularly required attention, were two that were placed last, 

 and stood a little apart. The first was a Carabus, of very curious form, or rather, per- 

 haps, a new genus approaching Carabus, which Mr. M. proposed to call apoplecticus, 

 from its apoplectic appearance. The other small fawn-coloured insect beside it was by 

 far the most curious of the whole. Mr. M. believes it to be an undescribed species of 

 a most extraordinary genus of beetles (Nemognatha, Latr.), of great rarity, and which 

 he imagined few of the members had had an opportunity of seeing before. The 

 extraordinary part of the insect consisted in the two curling appendages at its mouth. 

 For the benefit of the non-entomological members present Mr. M. described the prin- 

 cipal parts of a beetle's mouth in their normal state, and illustrated his description by 

 a sketch, in which the mandibles were coloured black and the maxillae red. Iu the 

 normal state, the mandibles and maxillae (to which Mr. M. wished in this instance to 

 call attention), like the antennae and palpi, as well as every other part of an insect, 

 vary much in form ; but however much they do so, they still bear the same relation to 

 the rest of the body. In the insect exhibited by Mr. M. there appeared to be a devi- 

 ation from this rule: all the other parts remained in their normal state, while the max- 

 illae were changed into long flexible processes (coloured blue in the sketch) projecting 

 from the mouth. These processes appeared to be composed of a succession of rings 

 meeting at the back. The specimen being unique, is too valuable to be sacrificed for 

 dissection, so that it cannot be ascertained whether the processes are tubular or not, 

 but they have every appearance of being so ; in fact, they bear a strong resemblance 

 to the trunk of an elephant, with the exception of the termination, for instead of hav- 

 ing a mouth or opening, they appear to terminate iu a point; at least, with the most 



