Gen. Tremex, Jurine.
1. Tremex insignis. T. nigro-purpureus; abdominis fasciis basalibus albis; alis nigris cupreo nitentibus.
Female. Length 11 lines. Obscure steel-blue, with shades of green, purple and violet; the head and thorax punctured; the prothorax with an oblique smooth shining space on each side; the wings very dark brown, with a brilliant coppery effulgence. The base of the abdomen opake, velvety, purple-black; the first segment with a transverse cream-coloured fascia in the middle, the second very slightly whitish at its base; the rest of the abdomen is highly polished, and has a scattered, short, black pubescence.
Hab. Aru.
Note on Two Insect-products from Persia. By Daniel Hanbury, Esq., F.L.S.
[Read December 16th, 1858.]
In the month of June last, my friend Professor Guibourt, of Paris, laid before the Académie des Sciences[G] some account of a remarkable substance called Tréhala, the cocoon of a Curculionidous insect found in Persia, where, as well as in other parts of the East, it enjoys some celebrity as the basis of a mucilaginous drink administered to the sick.
Specimens of this substance, as well as of another insect-product of Persia, together with the insects themselves, were presented a few years ago to the British Museum by W. K. Loftus, Esq., who obtained them while engaged by the British Government on the question of the Turco-Persian boundaries.
The precise determination of the species of these insects being a matter of doubt, they have at my request been lately examined by M. Jekel, of Paris, an entomologist with whom the family of Curculionidæ has long been an especial study. One of these insects M. Jekel has identified with a species of wide distribution; the other proving undescribed, he has drawn up a description of it, which, accompanied by a figure, I have the honour to lay before the Linnean Society. To this, I venture to add a few observations upon the productions to which I have alluded.