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ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III,

perhaps, brushing them over at that period with some coal tar ” may, by itssmell, which is known to be offensive to all insects, deter any from settling onthe trees for some days or weeks. In fig. 1289.,/shows the larvae of Nitidula

SIS

mm

PIS

jMiSi jMiI),

grisea; g, one of the same larvae magnified ; h, the pupa of the Nitidula grisea;i, the pupa magnified; k, the perfect insects; and l, the perfect insect magnified,{Lin. Trans., vol. i. p. 89.)

Cryptorhynchus lapathi is exceedingly abundant in the osier beds nearBarnes and Mortlake. In the perfect state, it is very sluggish, remainingnearly stationary upon the leaves and slender twigs, to which it attachesitself very firmly, by means of its broad cushioned tarsi, and probably, also, bythe bent hook at the extremity of the tibiae. Several interesting particularsare redorded relative to this species in Howitt’s Book of the Seasons. Inthe late Mr. Haworth’s Review of Entomology, published in the first partof the old Entomological Society’s Transactions, is given an extract from theAshmolean Appendix to Ray’s Historia Insectorum, relative to the “ Curculiolapathi of Linnteus, the ancient spelling of which appears to have beenGurgulio ; which species was selected for two reasons ; “ the one, because it isa well-known insect; and the other, because, according to this ingenious author,it possesses, though feebly, the faculty of voice ; which is a piece of informa-tion for which I am altogether indebted to this tract.” “ Lacessitus vocemquaerulam dedit.” The sound here alluded to is produced by the frictionof the hollowed base of the thorax against the elevated front of the elytra.

This insect, which is the Curculio lapathi of Linnaeus ( Syst. Nat., ii. 608.20.; Rhynchae'nus lapathi of Fabricius, Syst. Eleuth., ii. 466., and Gyllenhalland the Cryptorhynchus lapathi of Illigerand Stephens), varies in length from% in. to | in. It is of an opaque dirty black colour, with the sides of the thorax,and the base and apical portion of the elytra clothed with white scales ; thethorax and elytra being also ornamented with minute tufts of black scales-It feeds, also, upon the alders and sharp dock ( Riimex acittus), accordingto Gyllenhall. Kirby and Spence, however, appear to doubt the correctnessof this last habitat, considering th& name lapathi to have been given to the

insect by mistake; observing that, as “ docks often grow under willows, the

mistake in question might easily have happened.” {Introd. to Ent., i. p- ^ •

note.) _ j i Mr

In the salictmn in the Botanic Garden at Oxford, we are informed by hn-