6 PLATE DXLII. 



firft defcriber, which is not the fact, as it was previoufly noticed in the 

 Linnsean Syftema Naturae; this overfight would be deemed of fome 

 importance in any work, but muft be of ftill greater moment in a pro- 

 duction profeffedly defigned as an improved edition of the Linnaaan 

 publication: nor is the circumftance the lefs remarkable, fince Fabri- 

 cius, in the work quoted, affords a reference to the defcription pre- 

 vioufly given by Linnaeus. 



Linnaeus, and alfo Fabricius, fpeak of it in general terms as an inha- 

 bitant of Europe : the fpecies does not, however, appear, to be by 

 any means frequent like many others of the fame genus; for, with the 

 exception of the works of Villers, and thofe abovementioned, it does 

 not occur in any of the continental publications on Entomology. The 

 author of Entomologia Britannica, T. Marfham, Efq. introduces 

 this fpecies for the firft time to notice as a Britifh infect : the fpecimen 

 he defcribes is in the cabinet of Dr. Shaw, Another was taken in the 

 town of Plymouth on the 18 th of September, 1812, and is now in 

 the poffeffion of W. E. Leach, Efq.— The reader will pardon the 

 minutenefs of this detail when the rarity of the fpecies is duly 

 eftimatedo 



In its general afpect this uncommon infect differs little from fevera] 

 others of the fame tribe that are very abundant, and in which the 

 wing-cafes are red, with dots of black, and the thorax yellow with an 

 irregular fpot or fplafh of black in the middle: it is alfo like thofe of 

 the middle fize ; the bodv beneath is black. 



PLATE 



