( 115 ) IX. An Account of Margarodes, a new Genus of Insects found in the Neighbourhood of Ants' Nests. By the Rev. Lansdown Guilding, B.A. F.L.S. Read December 4, 1827. I USED to imagine that nothing would give me so much pleasure (excepting the discovery of a recent Belemnite), as an oppor-tunity of investigating those curious and minute bodies which have been so often sent to Europe in collections of shells, under the name of ground pearl ; and by accident I have at last been gratified in this respect. The only person who has lately noticed them is Dr. Nugent, a learned geologist resident in Antigua. In the second part of the fifth volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of London, page 463, he informs us, that the ground pearl (erro-neously supposed to be fossil) occurs in the marl of that island, and " is found in prodigious quantity in the furrows of the land when newly turned up." Dr. Nugent appears, however, to have suspected its real nature, for he says, (page 473,) " that though it be derived exclusively from the marl, it may possibly be in some unaccountable manner the production of some recent insect on the surface. The ground pearl generally has an opening as if the larva had escaped ; but in a few cases I have found them without opening, containing a minute portion of mucous matter : the negroes then call them live ground pearl. It is singular that turkeys and other poultry devour these ground pearls ; and their Q 2 death
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