colourless border, broadest behind, the margin even and entire, the back smooth and even, minutely punctured, almost naked, and the few setæ are scattered and very short; venter dark brown, convex, smooth, with an oblong sternal plate, which is minutely punctured and has a dark pore (vaginal) in its centre. Notaspis marginatus, Koch. A view form the ventral aspect. Palpi (fig. a) filiform and curved at their obtusely rounded apices, which are very bristly; and there is a short cylindrical moveable seta on the inner side of the penultimate joint. Legs eight, gracile, shorter than the body, of a uniform brown colour, tapered, sparingly furnished with very short setæ, and armed with a beautifully bilobed pedunculated vesicle and two powerful claws; they originate from the sides of the sternal plate, occupy the anterior half of the venter, and are equally distanced; the first pair (fig. b) are rather the longest, and of them only the tarsal joint is very bristly and has a long terminal seta which extends far beyond the vesicle. The legs are six-jointed, first joint thick and conoid, second short and thick, third elongate, incrassated outwards, fourth and fifth not half so long as the third and subequal, sixth as long as the third. The oral apparatus is concealed or invisible in the living insect, but becomes very obvious when the mite is compressed. It consists of two elongated four-jointed mandibles, which are protrusile and taper to a sharp point; but this point seems to be entire and unfurnished with chela (fig. c). Over the base there is a tricuspid plate or labrum; and on each side of this, externally, a peduncle with a long seta. The central division of the labrum is the longest or most projecting; and between each division we find a seta that reaches beyond the points. The structure is, as a whole, very characteristic of the Gamasida. The figure is a view from the ventral aspect. The mite is nearly allied to our Uropoda cassidea, and is referable to the same genus, notwithstanding the differences in the oral armature. It is of the same size, and has the same Cercyonlike habit and texture. It is, however, greatly more tardigrade, being a very sloth in its walk; and when placed on its back, it cannot recover the right position. The fore legs are kept forwards, and are kneed, from a bend at the second joint, whereon their movements are principally made. I found my specimens in May, on the sea-shore, above high water mark. 34. CARABODES NITENS. Mite small, roundish-ovate, narrowed forwards, convex dorsally, of a uniform glossy pitch-black colour, smooth, with gracile legs, shorter than the body. Cephalo-thorax triangulate, declined, armed on each side with a bristle that projects a little beyond the snout, the margins shouldered with a narrow projecting plate, sharp in front. Back even and smooth, marked with two or three minute foveolets, the margin entire and rounded behind; venter rather convex, even, of the same colour as the back. Legs of a clear brown or piceous colour, bristly, subequal; the first and fourth pairs longest and about equal, the second pair scarcely longer than the third, six-jointed; basal joint (fig. a) short but swollen, with a single bristle; the second joint larger and more dilated, compressed, with a convex outer edge armed with a single bristle, the inner edge straight; third joint very slender and short; the fourth elongate, thickened downwards, and armed with a long bristle near its distal end; fifth as long as the fourth, suddenly declining into the tarsal, which has a pair of long curved claws, and is more bristly than the other joints. Bristles all setaceous, those on the outer edge curved and moveable, those on the inner side immoveable and pointed downwards. The mouth or rostrum is a complicated structure, nor am I able to describe it correctly; for when crushed so as to be made an object for the microscope, the parts are dislocated and confused. There are two strong mandibles laid parallel to each d a other, and each of them terminated with a pair of minute curved claws, one of which only is moveable. External to each mandible, and perhaps adnate to it, there is a slender jointed palpus ; and underneath? the mandibles a pair of triangular plates (labrum), from the point of which protrudes a sharp bristle or stylet (fig. b). This mite is tardigrade. It resembles a small Cercyon, and is covered with a skin of the same coriaceous character as the cases of that beetle. When crushed, the skin is shown to be of the same fine ferruginous colour as the legs, deriving its darker hue only from the thickness of the viscera it encloses. The largeness of the basilar joints of the legs is surely a singular character in an insect which does not leap, and so slow and deliberate in its walk. I cannot conjecture a reason for this collection of muscular power in the limbs. In the fore legs the basilar joints are elliptical (fig. c); and the second joint of the second pair has a narrow wing or border (fig. d) on the inferior edge. The mite is common. It lives in moss on walls, and I have found it on agarics in spring and summer. I refer the insect to the genus Carabodes of Koch; but I could not discover any clavate bristle on the thorax, although attention was directed particularly to this character. Mr. J. Hardy on the Frugivorous Habits of some Geodephaga. 123 On the Frugivorous Habits of some Geodephaga. It is now I believe agreed on all hands, that Zabrus gibbus occasionally feeds upon grain; and some of the larvæ of Amaræ have been ascertained to be vegetable feeders. This, however, is the amount of information that we possess on the subject; all the other beetles of this division have been ranked as carnivorous, an inference drawn principally from the structure of their mouths and stomach. Notwithstanding this, however, it appears that several of those so-called carnivora mix with their stronger meals a certain proportion of vegetable diet. Of the Amara I have observed two feeding on plants: 1st, Amara plebeia, which often mounts Poa annua to eat the pollen; and A. familiaris, which tears the capsule of the mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium viscosum) and devours the half-ripened seeds. Omaseus melanarius, a wellknown destroyer of earth-worms, I have detected eating the nearly ripe seeds of the hemp-nettle (Galeopsis tetrahit). Curtonotus piceus is well known to occur frequently upon the knapweed, and to thrust its head down amongst the seeds, with, it was supposed, the intention of obtaining the dipterous maggots that feed upon the seeds of the plant. I have now little doubt that its object is the seeds alone, as only yesterday I found one employed in a similar manner upon the bog-thistle, after it had devoured the skin of one of its seeds, the interior having been eaten before my arrival. I afterwards saw another pull up a seed from the head of an autumnal dandelion (Apargia autumnalis) and then proceed to make a meal of it. Calathus cisteloides will probably be found to have similar habits. One evening I found four individuals near the summits of the rag-wort; but they observed my approach, and either hid themselves amongst the foliage, or dropped to the ground. cupreus. Since these notes were put together, I have met with another instance of a Geodephagous vegetable-feeder in Pœcilus At the meeting of the Entomological Society of London, May 6, 1844, Mr. Ingpen exhibited a specimen of this beetle which was taken in the act of devouring a common pea. Notice of two ancient Tombs or Graves discovered and opened in Spring 1851, upon Adderstone Low Mill Farm, in the Parish of Bamburgh. By P. J. SELBY, Esq. THESE graves were found when draining the field, about 3 feet from the surface; they were situated upon the crown of a rise or hillock, the highest part of the field, and pointed due north and south. The larger one formed of smooth-faced stones, each side and end being formed of one stone; the chest or cavity, about 3 feet 6 inches long, the width 3 feet, and the depth about 2 feet, was covered with a heavy block of limestone nearly 6 inches thick. The second grave, about 6 or 8 yards to the west of the other, is smaller, but formed in the same way, and also covered with a block of limestone. In the larger chest was an BQ C. Bones. A. Recess at east end of grave. B. Urn, broken in removing the cover. urn, of the usual form and manufacture found in the ancient graves and cairns of the district (several of which have been opened upon Twizell, Warenton, &c.), containing a few ashes, and some of the larger bones lay upon the floor of the tomb. No urn was found in the second or smaller but small porgrave, tions of the skull and other bones mixed with the earth of the floor. In the larger tomb there was a small recess at the eastern corner; but whether this had been made or left intentionally, or had arisen from the stones of the side and end not meeting at this point, is doubtful. D Limestone D. A hole through the block, but apparently natural or water-worn. These limestone blocks were probably brought from the bed of the river at Bradford, distant about half a mile, where the water runs upon the limestone rock. |