Some Old Correspondence Between Harris, Say, and Pickering.—III
International Journal of
BETWEEN HARRIS
SAY PICKERING.--III.
[HARRIS TO SAY.]
MILTON (Mass.) Nov'r I
. To Thomas Say
Es. Dear Sr
SOME
-
plnastri of Fabricius. The same
specific name occurs in Melsheimer?s
catalogue; but I find no species by that
name in the works of Fabricius which I
possess: These are his Entomologia
SyslemaNca, 5 vols. 179 2- 798 & his
Syslema leulheralorum, S.
R]zyngolorum, S. Piezalorum, & S.
Anllialorura, 5 vols. ISOt-iSo5. Neither
does the specific name inastri occur
in Gmelin?s innd.
Curculio 2Venuphar Herbst I do not
find in Fabr. or Gmelin, & have not
access to the work of Herbst.
I must thank you to refer lne to the
number of the Journal Acad. Nat. Sc.
in which your description of
Slenocorus tridens is to be found.
Last September I was so fortunate as
to discover the male of that species of
Aegeria of which sent you the female
in the spring, & to wh. I gave the name
offulvicornis, in a former letter. After
repeating my definition of the species I
will, agreeably to your request, add the
characters of the male. Aegeria
(fulvicornis) brunnea, alis posticis
hyalinis; margine postico, stigmateque
costall fuliginoso antennis tarsisque fulvis,
abdomine barbato. Mas minor, alis
anticis basi hyalinis, apice opacis; ano
tribarbato, barba media perlonga, fulva.
The most remarkable characteristic of
the male is the extremely long, slender,
bearded appendage to the abdomen, of
a tawny or dirty yellow colour. The
whole length of the male from the head
to the extremity of this appendage is I8y
of an inch; this appendage is not quite
iy of an inch; beivg nearly as long as
the whole body. Standing obliquely
on each side of the anus is a little
fuliginous tuff. The abdomen is
somewhat fulvous beneath. The anterior &
intermediate extremities are fulvous, the
latter however have a dark patch on the
genicula & tibim. The first joint of
the posterior tarsus is much more pilose
than in the female; the hair near the
union of the tarsus & tibia is fuliginous,
the remainder fulvous. The
pectinations of the antennm are slightly
fuscous. This is the only male that I have
ever seen, & I found it on the identical
currant bush from which I had the
preceding year taken the females.
I have this season met with a species
of Cicindela that is new to me, & which
I cannot identify as any one of those
described by you in the Trans. Am.
Philos. Soc. Phila. I818. I have called
it Cicindela (erythrogaster) * obscure
fusca, elytris lunulis basi et apicis,
fascia intermedia flexuosa, punctisque
duobus albidis abdomine femoribusque
viridis; ano late rufo. Length half an
inch. Antennm green at base. Head
cupreous, with two green abbreviated
lines between the eyes. Mandibles
white at the base, black at the points.
Lip white, with a single tooth. Thorax
cupreous obscure, with the margin &
breast green. Elytra obs[c]ure,
some*[See Harris, Entom. corresp., p. 2.]
what cupreous, with a humeral &
terminal lunule, an intermediate flexuous
band, & two spots behind the band
whitish. Abdomen green, the
hypogastrium red. Feet obscure, thighs
green. I have only met with one
specimen, which was captured in a dry,
graveIly pasture.
Prof. Peck taught me to define the
species in Latin & I have generally
adhered to his advice, though it savours
somewhat of pedantry.
My friend, Mr. Fuller, has kindly
taken charge of a package containing
two boxes of insects for you. In box ,
(the bottom one) are some of the
Coleoptera which I have collected. They
are all numbered in order to facilitate
you in naming to me such as have been
described, & to enable you to indicate
the nondescripts. I have kept a
catalogue to correspond, with arbitrary
names for all the species not as yet
ascertained. From the want of books,
plates, & access to other cabinets, but
more than all, from the want of time to
examine them I have made out but few
of the species. These I have added,
however, that I might from your
information and experience, render myself
dou3ly sure; & also that I might learn
of you to what genera they are to be
referred, according to the System of Dr.
Leach in Brewster?s Encyclop. I
prefer on most accounts his system to that
of Latreille in the Regne Animal of
Cuvier. Should it however be
inconvenient to you to follow the first, I must
content myself with having the genera
according to the second; with such
synonyms as may be necessary. No. of
the Coleoptera I once supposed to be
Cicindela trifasciata, F. but now
think it must be you[r] C. vulgaris. No.
7 is probably 1?rachinusfumans F.
No. 27 much resembles your iuprestis
divaricala;but is evidently a distinct
species, from the construction of the
apex of the elytra. No. 37 is the
luminous larva ? of some Lamj3yris" it is
very common in low grounds in Sept?r
and Oct?r. Nos. 66, 67 68, and 69
may perhaps be only sexual or other
varieties of one species. The same
may be true as to Nos. 36, 37, I38,
and 39" No. 76 1 take to be your Arelo.
lonl,a pilosicollis; No. 83 your M.
sericea & No. 86 yo (...truncated)