6'25 
a Family of Coleopterous Insects. 
the philosophical entomologist ; and if observation were par- 
ticularly paid to the peculiar uses which the living insects make 
of them, it is not to be doubted that some light would be thrown 
upon the dubious nature of the general uses and senses of those 
organs. Latreille indeed says in the Nouveau Diet. d’Hist. Nat. 
vol. xxv. p. 57, “ l’on soupponne que quelques esphees se tien- 
nent suspendues au moyen des dents ou des rochets du dernier 
article de leurs antennes.” This circumstance, however, appears 
to me to be extremely improbable. 
In describing the antennae of the species known to him, Fa- 
bricius, in order to state their peculiar structure, employed the 
teim irregulares, upon which Afzelius has commented in his 
paper, considering that, as it must convey the idea of the clava 
being of a shape either not always uniform or deviating from 
the ordinary rules of Nature, its employment is improper, since 
he states neither of these circumstances to be the case. That 
the antennae of the Paussi materially differ from the ordinary 
structure of these organs, no one will be inclined to question ; 
although it cannot be admitted that Nature has here deviated 
from her ordinary rule of introducing variations in the charac- 
ters of her groups. The term has, however, another definition, 
which the Professor has overlooked, which will convey a per- 
fect idea of their formation ; namely, by translating the word, 
‘uneven , or ‘with the surface irregular’: this I doubt not is 
the sense in which it was employed by Fabricius. 
With regard to the very interesting observations of Afzelius 
upon the luminosity of the second joint of the antennae of 
P. spharocerus, I am under the necessity of stating the doubts 
which I entertain upon the existence of so extraordinary a cir- 
cumstance. Might not the light reflected from the wall, falling 
upon the semipellucid livid-coloured balls of the antennae, give 
them the appearance described, with expressions of doubt, by 
4 l 2 Afzelius? 
