PLATE CXLV, 



In the space of many years an example of this extraordinary- 

 species of the Fulgora genus remained unique among the ento- 

 mological cabinets of this country ; the example alluded to was a 

 specimen preserved in the rich collection of Mr. Drury, the author 

 of" Exotic Entomology," and which, from his original manuscripts 

 in our library, we learn came into his possession in the year 1779. 

 This circumstance, however trivial it may appear, is not unworthy of 

 mention in relating the history of an insect so uncommon, and this 

 the more especially, because it has been omitted in the description of 

 the species printed subsequently by Mr. Drury in the third volume 

 of his publication. From that period till very recently, we have 

 reason to believe it had remained an insect of excessive rarity, if not 

 unique. Among our latest acquisitions, we now however possess no 

 less than two examples of the species, so that including the first 

 mentioned specimen, that of Mr. Drury, and which is now in the 

 cabinet of Alex. Macleay, Esq. we know of three specimens in the 

 collections of this country. 



Previously to the time of Linnaeus, we find this curious insect 

 among the rarities of Seba's museum ; Linnaeus expressly refers to 

 that work, and may have relied upon it chiefly for the description 

 that he has given in his Systema Naturae. Fabricius copies that des- 

 cription, only adding thereto, the synonyma of two or three authors 

 by whom it has been noticed since the time of Seba and Linnaeus. 



Some confusion appears to have arisen respecting the native 

 place of this remarkable object of curiosity. Fabricius, and Linnaeus 

 before him, speak of it as a native of India, but the manuscripts of 

 Mr. Drury state it to be Cayenne, and afford the same information 

 in his own hand-writing that is to be met with in the printed pages 



