60 
REVIEWS. 
degree of an actual perforation. The pores of the opposite surfaces of the 
intermediate joint, or joints, correspond so nearly, though not completely, 
as to produce to a great extent the appearance of perforations of the sub¬ 
stance of the joint. The pores are largest in proportion, and the structure,, 
therefore, most easily to be investigated in some of the Glaphyridce (Gla - 
phyrus , Amphicoma) ; smallest and most distant in the 1 Sericidce , in 
which they are disposed in furrows, alternating with ridges, over those con¬ 
tiguous surfaces. In the Melolonthidce the papilliferous pores, and the 
resulting cellular structure, extend in part to the external surfaces of the 
joints of the capitulum. In the Liparetridce , an Australian group, the 
discrepancy is greatest, the papillae being lengthened into pellucid hairs, as 
in the next section. 
In the Stegopyga, a less naturally defined group, the structure of the 
same parts is subject to greater variations; but as far as the investigation 
has been carried hitherto, they all agree herein, that the joints of the capi¬ 
tulum are covered on all sides, and especially on their contiguous surfaces, 
with pores which bear capillary glassy papillae. The length of these, 
however, varies in the different groups. In Bolbocerus there is observed 
a very peculiar condition of the space between the pores, which has, alter¬ 
nating with the hairs that clothe it, other excavations, lined with a glassy 
coat, and surrounded at the rim with a circle of hairs, which, converging, 
form a conical cap ; but on the inner contiguous surfaces of the joints these 
hairs are too short to meet, and compose merely an annular fringe. 
Burmeister, after a minute investigation of the structure thus concisely 
indicated in general, and a discussion of the collateral arguments, decides 
unhesitatingly in favour of the theory which attributes to the antennae of 
insects the function of smell. 
The Natural History of Ireland, in four volumes. Vol. IV. Mam¬ 
malia, Reptiles, and Fishes; also Invertebrata. By the late William 
Thompson, Esq. 8vo. London : Henry G. Bohn, York-street, Covent 
Garden. 1856. 
The interval of five years, which has elapsed between the publication of 
the third volume of Thompson’s Natural History of Ireland and this post¬ 
humous volume, is sufficiently accounted for by the circumstances under 
which it appears. The author had provided, in case of his own decease 
before the completion of his task, that the materials he had been accumu¬ 
lating for so many years should not be lost to science, by the appointment 
