Habitat: St. Vincent (Drury). America (Fabr.).
Head very small, and black. Neck long and slender. Eyes small. Antennæ orange-coloured; as long as the insect. Thorax very small and black in front; the hind part exceeding large, and of a rusty dark brown, the middle rising circularly and erect, with many points like teeth on its edges; the sides being extended beyond the body, and appearing like angles with their points cut off. Corium of the wing-cases dusky brown, the membrane of a brassy olive colour. Abdomen black. Legs orange, the thighs being black; from the front of the head issues a slender orange-coloured beak, which reaches to the fore legs.
This large and remarkable species of winged bug is commonly known in the West Indies under the name of the Wheel-bug, and is stated by Messrs. Kirby and Spence to possess the power of communicating an electric shock to the person whose flesh it touches. "The late Major-General Davies, of the Royal Artillery, once informed me, that when abroad, having taken up this animal and placed it upon his hand, it gave him a considerable shock, as if from an electric jar, with its legs, which he felt as high as his shoulders; and dropping the creature, he observed six marks upon his hand where the six feet had stood." (Intr. to Ent. 1. 110.)
There appear to be several species confounded under the specific name of serratus. The one figured by our author is well distinguished by the colour of its rostrum and tibiæ, which are fulvous or orange-coloured. (Fabricius calls them yellow "flavis," and Burmeister red "rufis.") I have received this species from Valparaiso. Another species having brown tibiæ, of a narrower form, rather smaller than the preceding, and having fewer teeth upon the scutellar crest, is very abundant in Pennsylvania. It may be distinguished by the following character:—
Arilus denticulatus, Westw. fuscus, tibiis concoloribus, rostro antennisque obscurè rufescentibus cristâ scutellari circiter 10-denticulatâ. Long. Corp. 13 lin.
Habitat in America septentrionali (Comm. Dom. Peale).
The sting of these insects produced by the short and powerful proboscis is accompanied with very considerable pain. Mr. Smeathman informed Mr. Drury that he had been stung by the largest wasps of Africa, as well as by these bugs, and thought the pain inflicted by the latter much more severe, though the effect does not remain so long. The pain is doubtless caused by that pungent volatile fluid which affects our smell so much when we catch those insects, with which they are abundantly supplied, and which they emit with considerable force.
PLATE XXXVII.
