AGL0SSA PINGUINALIS. 27 



De Greer's Memoires, tome 2, Ire partie, p. 371, in 

 which both Reaumur and Rolander are cited ; such 

 effectual help claims my grateful thanks. 



Reaumur, I have no doubt, knew the larva and 

 its habits, for I consider that the figures (PI. 20, 

 Memoire 8) as well as the description of his " fausses 

 teignes des cuirs " apply to A.pinguinalis, and not to 

 A. cuprealis ; but it was Linnseus who bestowed 

 the specific name pinguinalis — relying, doubtless, on 

 what Rolander had said of it, and thus gave the 

 stamp of his great authority to a mistake, which has 

 passed current for truth ever since. 



Next we have De Greer, who, in relating what he 

 knew himself of the larva, says, " It is in the rooms 

 and entrances that I have often found them, crawling 

 on the lloor or climbing against the walls, and only in 

 such places that I have met with them. They were 

 almost always come to their last stage of growth, so 

 that when one rested it was only to become a pupa." 



Again, after stating what Reaumur had said of the 

 larva making itself a tube, and gnawing leather 

 coverings of books, and feeding on dry bodies of dead 

 insects, he continues, " 1 have had no opportunity to 

 see their lodging, nor how they feed themselves ; it is 

 always in spring or commencement of summer that I 

 have found them, crawling in the rooms and against 

 the walls of the entrances. They are not willing to 

 eat at that time, but are all one after another pre- 

 paring to become pupse." 



Having thus said what he knew himself, he goes 

 on, "M. Rolander, who has also followed the history 

 of these larvae in the place I have cited in the Memoires 

 de l'Academie des Sciences de Suede, Ann. 1775, 

 p. 51, Tab. 2, said that they fed on many sorts of 

 eatables, as lard, butter, and dried meat, and for that 

 reason they willingly dwell in the larder and in the 

 offices. He has seen them eat butter and lard with 

 avidity. He has also rubbed all the body with lard 

 and with butter, without their having appeared to 



