224 
Hetekomera.- 
-INSECTS.- 
-BoSTRICmUAi. 
as British. They belong to the genera PliUnus, Xyle- 
tinus, Lasioderma, Dorcatoma, Anobium, Dryophilus, 
Ochina, Hedobia, Ptinus, Niptus — one species {Niptus 
hololeucns), covered with close, golden-yellow pile, has 
extended over this country in my time — Gihbium, and 
Scotius. 
With a notice of one species T may pass on to another 
family {Anobium pertinax). This little timber-boring 
beetle can, when alarmed, withdraw a considerable 
part of its head within the thorax, when it somewhat 
resembles a monk with its hood. It has been long 
famed for its pertinacious simulation of death, and 
indeed has derived its specific name {pertinax) from 
this very pertinacity. Fig. Ill shows the male of 
Ptinus fur. 
Family— BOSTRICHID^. 
The Bostrichidoi is a family of wood-boring insects, 
some of them large, cylindrical, and rough, especially 
Cape species. In this country we have but four spe- 
cies. Under Scolytidm the habits of this family are 
described. On Plate 3, fig. 19, the Apate capucina, a 
doubtful British insect, is figured. 
With a notice merely of the Lyctidce and small 
Cissidoe, often with very pretty antennse, I must pass 
on to another group ; and yet, in the economy of nature, 
in destroying fungi and feeding other insects or birds, 
like wrens or creepers, the larvae of these little beetles 
are no doubt extremely uselul. 
H E T E R 0 ]\I E R A. 
In the Heteromera, the first two pairs of legs have 
each five joints to each tarsus, but only four to each of 
the other legs. 
It is a very heterogeneous mass— there being in it, no 
doubt, many insects belonging to other groups, just as 
there are heteromerous genera and species in penta- 
merous and tetramerous sections. 
In most of the Heteromera the antennae are monili- 
form. In this place I do not attempt to describe the 
families in their order, and space is wanting to treat 
even of their names. On Plate 3 a few of the Hetero- 
mera are figured, mentioned further 
on, excepting the curious Heloeus 
perforatus (Plate 3, fig. 11), one 
of a singular group of insects, all 
indigenous to Australia. The 
Heloeus echidna (fig. 112), brought 
from King George’s Sound by 
Captain (now Governor Sir) George 
Gray, has the elytra armed with 
short spines ; others, as the species 
figured, have hairs projecting from the wing cases. 
We may begin with the great group Vesicantia, of 
which our Meloe or Oil Beetle is a characteristic 
example. See its curious history and strange meta- 
morphoses recorded by Newport in the Linnman Trans- 
actions. But space forbids our making extracts from 
his pages. 
There is no member of the order more famed than 
the “Blister-beetle” or “Spanish-fly” {Cantharis or 
Lytta Vesicatoria), and there is probably none that has 
been more useful to mankind. In the druggists’ shops 
you may see a large drawer or glass jar filled with 
Helseus echidna. 
Cantharides. It is a bright green beetle, glossed over 
with reddish bronze or blue ; its elytra are long and 
softish, and conceal two large wings; the antennie 
are longish and thread-shaped. The beetle is some- 
times though rarelj' taken in this country ; and some 
twenty years ago I saw many specimens captured on 
ash trees near Chelmsford or Colchester in Essex. On 
the continent of Europe it is a common insect, being 
abundant in the southern parts of France, Spain, Italy, 
Germany, and Russia. In France the collectors of 
Blister-beetles go out during the mornings and even- 
ings of the month of May, when they are less active 
than they are in the hot sunshine, and get them by 
spreading a cloth under a tree frequented by them, and 
shaking the tree or beating it with long poles. When 
so employed they usually cover their faces, and protect 
their hands by wearing gloves. The Cantharides are 
most frequently deprived of life bj^ immersing the cloths 
in which they are gathered in hot vinegar and water, and 
then drying them on hurdles covered over to keep them 
clean. They are imported into this country from Sicily 
and Russia, the greatest part being sent in barrels or 
cases from Astracan and St. Petersburg ; the Russian 
cases contain from sixty to seventy pounds. The insects 
are collected in large numbers in Hungary, and imported 
into this country by way of Hamburg. Dr. Pereira 
states that, in 1839, 16,376 lbs. of Blister-beetles were 
imported into this country, on which a duty of one 
shilling a pound was paid 
The principle in the beetles which causes its vesica- 
tory powers, exists more or less in all the numerous 
species of the family, 
I must here leave the Heteromera, containing the 
