RECENTLY DISCOVERER INSECTS. 
7GG 
the venom ferments, and the tnmour and the itching are only increased 
by friction. Rubbing one’s self at night with fuller’s earth and water, 
lessens the pain and inflammation. 
The female deposits her eggs in the water, by the help of her 
moveable hind part and her legs, placing them one by the side of 
another in the form of a little boat. This vessel, containing two or 
th ree hundred eggs, swims on the water*for two or three days, after 
which they are hatched. If a storm arises, the boats are sunk. 
Every month there is a fresh progeny of these insects. Were they not 
devoured by swallows and otlier birds, as well as by several carnivo- 
rous insects, the air would be darkened by them. 
Recently discovered Insects. 
Several nondescript little animals were discovered by LaMarniere 
the naturalist, when he accompanied the celebrated but unfortunate 
Peronse in his voyage of discovery. These he ranked among insects, 
and to some of them gave particular names, but without arranging 
them agreeable to the Linneean system of zoology. Fie describes them 
Rs follows. — “ This inject inhabits a small prismatic triangular ceil, 
pointed at the two extremities, of the consistence and colour of clear 
brittle ice. The body of the insect is of a green colour, spotted with 
small bluish points, among which are some of a golden tinge. It is fixed 
by a ligament to the lower part of its small habitation. Its neck is 
terminated by a small blackish head, composed of three converging 
scales, in the form of a hat, and enclosed between three fins, two of 
them large "and cliannelled in the upper part, and one small and 
semicircular. When it, is distended, it immediately withdraws its 
head and its fins into its cell, and gradually sinks into the water 
by its own specific gravity. Tbe movement carried on by the two 
larger fins, vvliich are of a softish cartilaginous substance, may 
be compared to that which w'ould be produced by two hands joined 
together in the state of pronation, and forming alternately two 
inclined planes, and one horizontal plane ; it is by means of this 
that it supports itself on the top of the water, where it probably feeds 
on fat and oily substances on the surface of the sea.” 
Our author found it near Nootka, on the north-west coast of Ame- 
rica, during a cairn. At the same time he saw a collection of insects, 
consisting of oval })odies, similar to a soap-bubble, arranged in par- 
ties of three, five, six, and nine; among them were also some solitary 
ones. These collections of globules, being put into a glass filled with 
sea-water descrilied a rapid circle round the glass by a common 
movement, to which each individual contributed by a simple com- 
pression of the side of its body, probably the effect of the re-action 
of the air with which they w'ere filled. It is not, however, easy to con- 
ceive how these distinct animals, for they may be readily separated 
w ithout deranging their economy, are capable of concurring in a com- 
mon motion. 
“These considerations, says our author, together with the form of 
the animal, recalled to my mind, with much satisfaction, the ingenious 
system of M. de Buffon ; and I endeavoured to persuade myself that 
