Insects. 701 



Note on the capture of Dendrophilus Cooperi at Hammersmith. I have occasionally 

 taken a specimen of this very rare little species, out of an old apple-tree in the garden 

 adjoining- my own, since the middle of last May. — Id. 



Notice of the occurrence of the Coleopterous genus Serropalpus in Leicestershire. I 

 have been favoured by Mr. I. Plant, of Leicester, with a specimen of the genus Serro- 

 palpus, which was captured by his brother in the warehouse of Messrs. Harris & Sons, 

 hosiers, in a bundle of hose, which a countryman had just brought from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Loughborough, situated near Charnwood-forest, from the vicinity to which 

 Mr. Plant concluded it was to be found on the oaks in the forest. To my further en- 

 quiries relative to the capture of the insect, Mr. Plant further informs me (in reply 

 to the suggestion that the insect might have been introduced from the continent in a 

 bale of goods, having been found in a warehouse), that he had been assured by Mr. 

 Harris, that they had no return goods from abroad for at least four months previous to 

 the capture of the insect ; and when they receive any, they are shipwrecked bales. He 

 thought indeed that it might have arrived in the larva state in wool ; but such an idea 

 is inconsistent with the Xylophagous habits of the larva: and moreover, they never 

 receive any raw material, it being a warehouse for home-manufactured goods alone. 

 Besides, Mr. Plant states that he frequently has had brought to him from the same 

 warehouse, Hylobius Abietis and other bark-insects, which he had only found in the 

 forest-trees, and that he once had brought to him a specimen of Sinodendron cylindri- 

 cum, taken off a hosier's bag ; for these are bags brought in from the country villages 

 round Leicester, where thousands of workmen are employed, and nothing is more com- 

 mon than to see them at work in the open air, and surrounded with trees. The spe- 

 cimen is rather a small one, measuring only 5 lines in length ; whereas one of my fo- 

 reign specimens is 9 lines long. It has the margins of the elytra redder than in my 

 specimens, and the longitudinal impressions on the elytra (whence the specific name) 

 are less distinct than in my individuals. There is indeed a species in Dejean's Cata- 

 logue, named S. Vaudoueri, Latr. from the west of France, but I cannot find that it 

 has ever been described. It may possibly be our insect. This I shall however be able 

 to determine shortly in Paris. I think you will agree with me that the circumstances 

 above mentioned fully warrant us in adding the true genus Serropalpus to the British 

 list. I say the true genus, because although Samouelle has introduced it and its true 

 characters into his Compendium, it has never before been detected in England ; the 

 specimens which he mentioned not agreeing with his characters, but being, in fact, 

 Phloiotrya rufipes. Mr. Stephens, in his Catalogue, also introduced Serropalpus, with 

 P. rufipes as its type ; but this impropriety he corrected in his Illustrations, by giving 

 to that species another generic name, although it is perhaps questionable how far it is 

 generically distinct from the true type of Xilita (Dircaea) discolor, Fabr. Mr. Ste- 

 phens also in his Catalogue gave S. Vaudoueri, Latr., as a doubtful synonyme of Phi. 

 rufipes, but Dejean placed them in different genera, the former as a Serropalpus, and 

 the latter as a Dircaea. — Jno. O. Westwood ; Hammersmith, August 29, 1844. 



Note on the Voracity of Dytiscus marginalis. A very remarkable instance of tena- 

 city of life in the larva of this insect, lately came under my observation, and may per- 

 haps be interesting to some of the readers of ' The Zoologist.' While botanizing in 

 the neighbourhood of Forres, with my friend Dr. Innes of that town, we espied in a 

 ditch, among Myriophyllum &c., a larva of Dytiscus marginalis dragging through the 

 water and devouring at the same time, a large eft {Triton aquaticus), several times lar- 

 ger than itself. Both animals were captured, the eft being nearly dead, and deposited 



