376 [Assembly 
liarnstown, Mass., was out down wheu sixty-five years old, and a 
portion of it was manufactured into a table, from one of the 
leaves of which table “ a strong and beautiful bug ” ate its way 
out twenty years afterwards, a second made its appearance subse¬ 
quently, and finally, at the end of twenty-eight years, a third 
made its appearance. 
The six succeeding species, (87—94,) pertain to the family 
Blapsidje, numerous genera and species ef which inhabit the 
African deserts, whilst in this country there are very few. Their 
habits have been but slightly investigated. One of the most com¬ 
mon species in Egypt, Forskahl relates, is cooked in butter and 
ate by the women of that country, from the idea that it will make 
them become fat. Of the Blaps morlisaga, or Churchyard beetle, 
Dr. Pickells reports, (Trans, of Assoc. Pkysioians of Ireland, 
1824—1828,) that at different times, as many as two thousand 
larvse were discharged from the stomach of a woman, who was 
addicted to the superstitious practice of drinking daily a quantity 
of water, mixed with clay taken from the graves of two Catholic 
priests. 
The species of Opatrum, (No. 95, 96,) reside in sandy situations, 
whilst most of the Tenebrionid.®, the family to which they per¬ 
tain, dwell in fungi and rotten wood, and others in flour, bran, 
meal &c. These last are the well known Meal-worms, (larvse of 
tenebrio, molitor, obscurus, curvipes. etc.) of our granaries, flouring- 
mills and bake-houses. They are equally common in this country 
as in Europe: Nor are their ravages limited to the farinaceous 
grains. A small quantity of timothy and clover seed which re¬ 
mained in a pail after sowing, I found a twelvemonth afterwards, 
pervaded with and destroyed by larvse and insects of T. molitor. 
The four next species, (No. 97 — 100,) belong to the weevil fam¬ 
ily (Curculionidje) so well known from the great mischief some 
of them do in stored wheat, rice, and other valuable seeds. Other 
species subsist upon the leaves, flowers and stems of vegetables. 
These are beetles, commonly of minute size, and with long slender 
snouts, which the insect employs to form a hole in which to de- 
