- a y< V L VC € 4 r m C * . < 4t'C • v * \ r /i ? Cc. Jptc C^ElNE ^l^K2^' OOLOGY o/ 1 Systematic ^VkTTrnAZ, iiistomi bv If y 1 a. ^ITMT-LATES fronitlie firstAutlioriti.es and niost select specimens M* HEATBL& M*. s GRIFFITH, «g "Sat** ~Sm 4 — verrucivorous --- mole- cricket — monstrous . LUCANUS GENUS Cervus inermis' Australasias Mantis genus . oratoria precaria . gongyloides MORDELLA GENUS aculeata" Moth, Atlas , Luna Junonia peacock Great Tiger Puss brown-tail — mulberry nupta . elder currant . prasinana farinalts padella . vestianella five-plumed < ■' ' - twenty-plumed 138 139 «140 140 140 143 27 27 29 30 \o 6 118 118 120 120 107 107 223 224 225 225 226 22(> 228 230 236 237 237 237 237 238 238 239 239 CONTENTS. IX Meloe genus ■ Pro scar abaeus •■ scabrosus . - — = vesicatorius Nepa genus — — - grandis cinerea . ■ linearis Notonecta genus ■ glauca — striata 104 104 105 106 157 157 157 159 155 155 155 minutissima 156 Papilio genus Priamus Anterior • Hector Sarpedon Menelaus Machaon Apollo • Piera Cratsegi ricini rhamui brassicae • Hyale - — Midamus ■ sophorae ■ 15 . Jurtina Atalanta Paphia ■ malvae betulee 202 207 208 208 208 208 209 210 211 211 211 211 211 21i 212 212 212 213 214 214 214 214 Papilio, Marsyas . Pausus genus ! microcephalus sphaeroceros . Phasma genus . — Gigas — - dilatatum •-- siccifolium PHALiENA GENUS. Adas . Luna . Junonia pavonia — ■ vinula > fuscicauda . niori nupta . sambucaria grossulariata * prasinana farinalis padella vestianella . hexadactyla pentadactyla Ptinus genus fatidicus tesselatus . Fur . . pectinicornis SCARABiEUS GENUS Hercules 214 42 43 44 122 123 124 127 222 224 224 225 225 226 228 230 236 236 237 237 237 238 238 239 239 31 32 35 36 37 U 17 CONTENTS. Scarabseus, Goliathus ■ Melolontha : Fullo . ' auratus SlLPHA GENUS ■ Vespillo — Germanica ~ thoracica — at rata Sphinx genus -- ligustri -- ocellata — Atropos — fillipendulae — apiformis . — crabroniformis 21 , 21 ' 26 j 26 50 50 51 52 52 215 215 216 217 221 222 2i2 Staphylinus GENUS 108 major . 108 erythropterus . . .... 109 Staphylinus, murinus . 109 Stag-Beetle, common . 27 — — -— — ■ — unarmed . 29 Australasian 30 Silk-Worm TeNEBKIO GENUS — mortisagus — globosus — molitor Trips genus physapus Weevil, palm . nut grain . corn . imperial < — royal . silvery 230 101 101 102 102 198 199 62 63 64 65 65 69 67 I i Directions for placing the Plates in vol. VI. part 7. The Vignette represents a highly singular and beautiful insect called Scarabccus Macropas or Kangaroo Beetle. Its colour on the upper surfece is ja rich varnishy grass-green, and the under surface of a brilliant copper-colour. This singular Beetle was received from Potosi, and is preserved in the elegant collection of Mr. Francillon of Norfolk-street. The specimen is believed to be unique. Plate 1 to face page 19 2 20 3 21 4 24 5 ■ 26 6 27 7 31 8 33 36 10 38 11 39 32 42 13 4 8 14 50 15 53 , 10 55 17 " 57 18 L. 5 9 19 61 20 62 21 63 22 66 Plate 23 to face page- 68 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 3(5 37 38 39 40 41 42 W3 44 71 73 74 76 77 81 83 86 88. 91 95 99 101 104 107 108 110 113 118 120 121 xn plate 45 to face page 124 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 125 127 129 138 140 143 144 149 155 157 159 161 168 186 190 191 193 Plate 63 to face page \Q8 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 202 207 208 210 211 212 213 214 216 2!7 217 218 225 230 236 237 ,..:. ADVERTISEMENT. The present volume is intended as an Illu- stration of the Linnaean genera of Insects, with the history of the principal species. %* The seventh and succeeding Volumes of this Work xvlll proceed with all reasonable expedition. V. J. p. % h ERRATA— VOL. VI. PART t. P. 153, line 2, dele the. P. 165, line 16, for acanihark read acanthurus. ERRATA.— VOL. VI. PART II. P. 378, line 9, according to more or less, read according to the more or tes. P. 379, line 13, for in ibis division, read in this first division. P. 146, line 9, for affirm, read affirms. m t INSECTS. rp X HE class of beings distinguished by the title of Insects, though far inferior in point of magni- tude, must be confessed to surpass in variety of structure and singularity of appearance all the larger branches of the animal world. Their ex- traordinary shapes, the surprising beauty and di- versity of their colours, and above all, the astonish- ing alteration of form which the generality of them undergo, conspire to constitute one of the most curious speculations which the science of natural history can exhibit, and may be said to realize all the fancied transformations recorded in the fictions of poetical romance. The general characters by which Insects are distinguished from other animals are these. First, they are furnished with several feet: secondly, the muscles are affixed to the internal surface of the skin, which is of a substance more or less strong, and sometimes very hard and horny: thirdly, they breathe not in the usual manner of the generality of larger animals, by lungs or gills, situated in the upper part of the body, but by a sort of spiracles v. vi. p. i. l 1 INSECTS. or breathing-holes, distributed in a series or row on each side the whole length of the abdomen 5 and these spiracles or breathing-holes are supposed to communicate with a continued chain, as it were, of lungs, or at least of parts analogous to them, distributed throughout the whole length of the body. The head is furnished with a pair of what are termed Antenna or horns, which are extremely various in the different tribes, and which, by their differences of structure form a leading character in the institution of the Genera or small assortments into which Insects are distributed. Among the older writers on Natural History, and even among some of the more modern, several animals are called by the name of Insects, which, in reality belong to a very different tribe of beings, as Snails, several kinds of Worms, and the smaller animals in general. What are termed Animal- cules in modern Natural History are also fre- quently confounded with insects, though in reality belonging to the very different tribe of Vermes or Worm-Like Animals. It is not intended at present to enter, with any degree of minuteness, upon the anatomical de- scription and philosophic history of Insects; since this has long ago been elucidated in almost all its branches by the labours of Swammerdam, Reau- mur, Roesel, and many other authors : to relate therefore what has been so often described may be thought in a great degree unnecessary: yet, on the other hand, it may with equal propriety be observed, that few who have not been particularly INSECTS. 3 conversant in this part of Natural History can be supposed to have studied these authors; and to such it should seem highly necessary to give at least some abridged description of the particulars most worthy of attention which have been dis- covered by those who have written professedly on the subject. It must be absolutely unnecessary in the present enlightened days of science to say any thing rela- tive to the ancient idea of what was termed the equivocal production of Insects, and their sup- posed or pretended origin from putrefaction. One single experiment of Redi, a celebrated physi- cian and philosophic observer in the seventeenth century, must be fully sufficient to prove the ab- surdity of the doctrine entertained by the ancients. Let some animal flesh, for instance, be placed in an open vessel, and exposed to the air for some days; and let another vessel with the same kind of flesh in it be also placed with it, but instead of being exposed to the air, let it be covered with a piece of silk or fine gauze, tied over it. The con- sequence will be, that the flesh in the open vessel will in a short time abound with the larvce or maggots of flies, which have deposited their eggs on the meat; but, on opening the covered vessel, not the least appearance of such beings will be found, though the flesh be in the same state of putrefaction with the other. I know not that the truth of this experiment has ever been called in question; but if it has, it must have been owing to the experiment not having been properly con- • 4 INSECTS. ducted; for, supposing the flesh not to be abso- lutely fresh or recent when first put into the vessel, it is by no means improbable that some animal's eggs might have been deposited upon it before the experiment was made; in which case they would undoubtedly hatch in the vessel, and thus lead to a fallacy. The flesh therefore must be perfectly fresh and well examined before it be put into the vessel. Still however an objection might be made on account of the legions of microscopic animal- cules which would probably appear, if the fluid parts of the flesh, even in the closed vessel, were accurately surveyed*. The ancients, exclusive of the former erroneous notion, entertained an idea that Insects were desti- tute of blood ; for which reason they called them animalia exsanguia or bloodless animals ; but this idea arose merely from their not having paid that minute attention to the study of Nature which distinguished the philosophers of the last and pre- sent century; and particularly to their not having had the advantage of the microscope. Insects are now well known to be so far from bloodless ani- mals that in many of them the circulation itself of the blood is most clearly and distinctly perceived. The blood of insects differs from that of the larger animals chiefly in colour, since in most insects it wants redness, being generally of a clear or watery * We must also admit that some kinds of the cellular or hydatid taeniae might have taken up their abode in the flesh, and these, to a person inconversant in Natural History, might appear an argument in favour of equivocal generation. INSECTS. 5 aspect, and sometimes green. The circulation of the blood is particularly conspicuous in Spiders, and in some species of Cimex or Bug, in which the vibrations and contractions of the arteries may also be distinctly observed*. The first state in which Insects appear is that of an ovum or egg. This relates to the generality of Insects; for there are some few examples of vi- viparous Insects, as in the genus Aphis, Musca,&c. From the egg is hatched the insect in its second or caterpillar state, (though the term Caterpillar relates more particularly to the insects of one peculiar tribe.) This second state has been gene- rally known by the name of Eruca, but Linnaeus has changed it to that of Larva, considering it as a sort of masked form or disguise of the Insect in its complete state. The Larva? or Caterpillars of insects differ very much from each other, accord- ing to the different tribes to which they belong. Those of the Butterfly and Moth tribe are gene- rally and emphatically known by the name of Caterpillars, and are universally known. Those of the Beetle tribe, except such as inhabit the waters, are of a thick, clumsy form, and the abdo- men is commonly of a heavy or bulging appear- ance. The Larvae of the Locust or Grasshopper tribe, and of some others of the same order, do not differ much in appearance from the complete Insect, except in being destitute of wings. The Larvae of Flies, Bees, and many others, are gene- * Especially in the Cimex lectularius or common bug. 6 INSECTS. rally known by the name of maggots, and are of a thick and short form. Those of Dragon-Flies, Dytisci or Water-Beetles, and many other Insects, are of highly singular forms, and differ perhaps more from that of the complete insect than any others except those of the Butterfly tribe. Some Insects undergo no change of shape, but are hatched from the egg complete in all their parts, and undergo no farther alteration than that of casting their skin from time to time, till at length they acquire the complete resemblance of the parent animal. It is in the Larva or caterpillar state that most insects are peculiarly voracious, as in many of the common caterpillars of Moths and Butterflies. In their complete state some insects, as Butterflies for instance, are satisfied with the lightest and most delicate nutriment, while others, as several Beetles, Dragon-Flies, &c. &c. devour animal and vegetable substances with a considerable degree of avidity. When the time arrives in which the Larva or caterpillar is to change into the next state, viz. that of Chrysalis or Pupa, it ceases to feed, and having placed itself in some quiet situation for the purpose, lies still for several hours, and then by a kind of laborious effort, frequently repeated, divests itself of its external skin, or larva coat, and immediately appears in the very different form of a chrysalis or pupa. The Pupa, or Chrysalis, differs in the different tribes of Insects almost as much as the Larva. In INSECTS. 7 most of the Beetle tribe it is furnished with short legs, capable of some degree of motion, though very rarely exerted. In the Butterfly tribe it is perfectly destitute of all appearance of legs, and has no other motion than a mere lateral bending or writhing when touched. In the Locust tribe it differs but very little from the perfect Insect, ex- cept in not having the wings complete. In most of the Fly tribe it is perfectly oval, without any apparent motion, or distinction of parts. The Pupa3 of the Bee tribe, and other Insects of a similar cast are less shapeless than those of Flies, exhibiting the faint or imperfect appearance of the limbs. Those of the Libellulne or Dragon- Flies are locomotive, as in the Locust tribe, but differ most widely from the appearance of the complete Insect, and may be numbered among the most singular in the whole class of Insects. I should here observe that the Linnosan term Pupa, which most modern entomologists substi- tute for that of Chrysalis, was given from the indistinct resemblance which many insects bear in this state to a doll, or a child when swathed up according to the old fashion. From the Pupa or Chrysalis emerges at length the Insect in its complete or ultimate form, from which it can never change, nor can it receive any further increase of growth. This last or perfect state of an Insect is, in the Linnaean language, termed Imago. This surprizing alteration of shape during the different periods of an Insect's life, is to be con- 8 INSECTS. sidered as an evolution or successive display of parts before concealed. Thus Svvammerdam de- clares that he could demonstrate all the parts of the future Butterfly even in the body of the cater- pillar itself. The truth of this experiment of Swammerdam has been sometimes vehemently doubted, and -even denied by some; especially as it is difficult, at first, to discover these parts even in the chrysalis or pupa, which is a step nearer to the complete Insect. But in reality, there seems to be but small reason for questioning the truth of Svvammerdam's observation -, and it may be readily conceived that, by a very accurate and delicate investigation, the rudiments of the future fly may be distinguished in the Caterpillar, if observed a few hours before its transformation into a chrysalis. Insects possess some particular parts which are not to be found in any of the larger animals. Among these are the A?ite?mce before mentioned, which are generally termed the horns. They are those processes or jointed bodies situated on each side the head. The use of these parts is not entirely understood*. It has by some been ima- gined that they are the instruments of hearing. They differ extremely in the different tribes of Insects, and are found to constitute one of the most convenient parts to fix upon in the distribu- tion of Insects into genera and species. It is * See a highly learned and ingenious dissertation entitled, " De Scnsibus extemis Ardmalium Exangidum," by Mr. M. C. Gottlieb Lehman, published at Gottingen in the year 1798. INSECTS. Q therefore necessary slightly to enumerate their differences. Antenna setacea, or setaceous Antenna, means one which is shaped like a bristle, or which grows extremely fine and sharp at its termination. Antenna JUif or mis, or thread-shaped, differs from the former in being of equal diameter through- out, or not visibly smaller at the tip than in other parts. Antenna moniliformis, or moniliform, is that in which the joints are shaped like the beads of a necklace, each joint being globular or nearly so. Antenna clavata, clavated or club-shaped, is one which thickens at the tip into a knob or small club, as in the major part of Butterflies. Antenna fissiiis, or fissile, is one which is split or divided at the tip into several lamella? or flat separations, as in the Beetles strictly so called, or Scarabaei. Antenna pcc'tinata, or pectinated, means one which is divided along each side into numerous processes in such a manner as to resemble the teeth of a comb, as may be observed in many of the Moth tribe. Antenna barbata, or bearded, is one which is slightly feathered, either on one or both sides, with fine lateral fibres or hairs. Antenna perjoliata, or perfoliate, is one in which the joints are of a flattened and circular shape, with the stem or body of the antenna passing through them, as in the leaves of some plants, which are called perfoliate from a similar circum- 10 INSECTS. stance, viz. the stem seeming to pass through the leaves. This kind of Antenna is exemplified in some of the shell-winged or Beetle tribe. Another part peculiar to Insects consists in a pair or two of short, jointed processes proceeding from the mouth : they are termed Palpi or Feelers, and are very conspicuous in some insects, and much less so in others. The Mouth in insects is generally situated at the lower part of the front, and varies much in structure in the different orders. In the Beetle tribe it is furnished with very strong jaws, often notched or serrated on the inner side into the ap- pearance of teeth: this is also the case in Locusts and many other insects. In some the mouth consists of a tube or instrument for suction, either simple, or variously sheathed and guarded by dif- ferent kinds of appendages. In such insects as have jaws, it is observable that they do not meet per- pendicularly, as in quadrupeds and birds, but horizontally. So great is the variety in the structure of the mouth in the different tribes of Insects, that a celebrated Entomologist (Fabricius,) has formed his System from this part in preference to any other. It must be observed however, that this mode of arranging insects is attended with much difficulty, and seems far inferior to the obvious and easy characters which distinguish the Linnasan distribution. The Eyes in Insects are commonly situated on each side the head, and are two in number; but INSECTS. 11 in some insects, as in Spiders, they are six or eight in number. In the major part of the Insect tribe the eyes may be considered as compound; at least with respect to the exterior coat or cornea, which, when viewed with a mi- croscope, presents the appearance of an infinite number of separate convexities, which are of a shape exactly hexagonal, and appear to be so many real convex lenses or glasses ; but the exact manner in which vision is performed in Insects is perhaps not yet ascertained. Some have supposed each of the hexagonal lenses to act as a real and separate eye, and that the optic nerves are ex- panded in separate branches at the bottom of each as a retina; or that one universal retina is expanded under all, which probably, is the real structure. Yet it still remains difficult to account for this prodigious multitude of eyes on the head of -one single animal. The head of the common Libellula or Dragon-Fly is perhaps furnished with not less than twenty-five thousand of these little lenses. Whatever be their use, this particular structure cannot be contemplated without the highest admiration, and constitutes one of the most curious particulars in the comparative ana- tomy of Insects. That they are real convex lenses seems demonstrated by their exhibiting every phenomenon of such; inverting any object viewed through them when magnified, as the flame of a candle, the chimney of a house, or any other object towards which they are directed; and that they are double-convex lenses has been generally 12 INSECTS. concluded from the appearance of a lateral section of the cornea, in which the convexities of the sides of each lens have appeared similar*. The celebrated Swammerdam is of opinion that vision is not performed by each lens as a separate eye, as in quadrupeds, &c. but that it is excited, as he expresses himself, by the mere appulse of the rays of light on the lenses, which thus convey the idea of the object. He also observes, that under every lens is a hexagonal cone of fibres, the base of the cone corresponding to the size of each lens. Dr. Hook maintains that each lens is convex on the external, and concave on the internal side. Besides the eyes just described, there are on the heads of many Insects three small, smooth, lucid globules resembling so many separate eyes, placed on the top of the head, between or above the lateral ones. These parts Linnaeus distin- guishes by the title of Siemmata. Their real na- ture is not yet very clearly understood. The existence of the Brain in insects is denied by Linnaeus, but by this he can only be supposed to mean that it does not bear much resemblance to that of the larger animals. * Some insist that they are so many magnifying Menisci of unequal spheres, the exterior or convex part of each being a portion of a smaller sphere than the concave or interior part. The accurate Roesel represents the supposed convexity of both sides, but candidly confesses that he cannot absolutely determine the point. The late eminent optician Mr. Benjamin Martin, in an ingenious treatise on the nature of vision in Insects, insists on their being double convex lenses, and has represented the proportional convexity in the eye of the Dragon- Fly. INSECTS. 13 The Body in the major part of Insects is divid- ed into the thorax or upper part, and the abdo- men or lower part. In many of the Beetle tribe the back of the thorax is distinguished by a small triangular piece or division, situated at its lower part, between the juncture of the wing-sheaths : this triangular part is termed Scutellum or escutcheon. The under part of the thorax is called the breast, or Pectus, and in this the sternum is frequently- distinguishable. The abdomen is marked into transverse sections, and the last joint terminates in the tail, or pointed extremity. The wing- sheaths or shelly coverings, in the Beetle tribe and some others, are termed Elytra or Coleoptra. The Limbs, in the major part of Insects, consist of three principal divisions ; viz. the upper joint, Femur or thigh, the second joint, Tibia or leg, and the third, Tarsus or foot, which commonly consists of several small articulations, and is terminated by a dilated tip, with two hooked claws. In many Insects there are two small parts re- sembling minute bladders, fixed on a slender, short stem, and situated one under each wing: these parts are called Halteres, balancers, or poisers, and are only to be found in the two- winged insects : their supposed use is to keep the 'Insect steady during its flight, since if one of them be cut off, the animal flies with an unsteady motion. The majority of Insects are observed to be an- nual; finishing the whole term of their lives in the space of a year or less ; and many do not live 14 INSECTS. half that time; nay there are some which do not survive many hours; but this latter period is to be understood only of the animals when in their complete or ultimate form, for the larvae of such as are of this short duration have in reality lived a very long time under .water, of which they are natives; and it is observed that water-insects in general are of longer duration than land-insects. Some few insects however in their complete state are supposed to live a considerable time, as Bees for instance; and it is well known that some of the Butterfly tribe, though the major part perish before winter, will yet survive that season in a state of torpidity, and again appear and fly abroad in the suceeding spring. Spiders are also said to live a considerable time, and some species of the genus Cancer are said to live several years, especially the common Lobster, &c. It should be observed however that these animals, in the opinion of some modern naturalists, constitute a different tribe of beings from Insects properly so called. I must not dismiss this slight introduction to the survey of Insects without observing that this branch of Natural History has above all others been subject to the ridicule which has so fre- quently been bestowed on the investigation of that science in general. Even those who from their superior genius and talents might have been supposed to have held every branch of science in its proper degree of estimation, have occasion- INSECTS. 15 ally given way to a temporary sally of contempt at the historians of the minuter productions of Nature. Thus the celebrated Count de Buffon, happening not to have had any particular ad- diction to the study of Insects, has not scrupled to hint in strong and striking terms his opinion of its inferiority compared with the study of the greater and more conspicuous parts of the creation. " Who," says this celebrated writer, " gives us the grandest and most magnificent ideas of the Creator of the Universe ? he who represents him, in the plenitude of his power, directing the formation of suns and of planets, and guiding the revolutions of worlds, or he who discovers him busied in regulating the oeconomy of an hive of bees, or deeply engaged in folding the wings of a beetle ?" Other philosophers however, of the most exalted character, have expressed a widely different opi- nion. The great Boyle declares that for his own part his wonder was more excited by the con- templation of a mite than by that of an elephant ; and adds, in a phrase somewhat singular, that his admiration dwelt not so much on the clocks as on the watches of Nature ; and the opinion of Pliny, which Linnaeus takes for the motto of his volume on Insects is evident from his own words. In his tarn parvis tamque fere null is qua ratio ! quanta vis! quam inextricabilis perfectio ! fl ' l6 INSECTS. Insects are divided by Linnaeus into seven orders or distributions. The first order is entitled Coleoptera, and contains all those insects whose wings are guarded by' a pair of strong, horny, exterior cases or coverings, under which the wings are folded up when at rest. These insects, in common language, are called Beetles, though iff reality that term, as we shall soon find, is to be restricted in science to one particular genus. The wing-sheaths or horny coverings are some- times called colcoptra, but more generally elytra. The Coleopterous Insects form a very large or extensive order. The second division of Insects is termed Hemip- tera or half-winged. That is, the upper part of the wing-sheaths in this tribe is of a tough or leathery texture, and the lower part membranace- ous. Sometimes almost the whole wing-cover is leathery, but of a softer texture than in the Coleoptera. The insects contained in this divi- sion are very various; all the Locusts or Grass- hoppers, the Cicada?, and a great many others. It is to be observed that the wing-covers in this older cross each other when closed, instead of meeting in a direct line. The third order is termed Lepidoptera or scaly- winged. It consists of the insects commonly termed Butterflies and Moths. The powder on the wings of these insects has been generally de- scribed by microscopical writers as consisting of small feathers; but in reality it consists rather of INSECTS. iy minute scales, of various shapes and sizes on the different species, and even on the different parts of the same animal. Their general appearance is more or less fan-shaped, and they are disposed in the manner of tiles on a roof, lapping over each other. The fourth order is called Neuroptera, or nerve- winged. The insects of this order are remarkable for the reticulated appearance of the wings, the fibres running into ramifications and decussations over the whole surface. This order is exempliiied in the Libellulas or Dragon-Flies, &c. in which this character is remarkably conspicuous: the wings are always four in number. The fifth order is called Hymenoptera, and con- sists of insects furnished with four membranaceous wings, and also with a sting, or a process resem- bling one. It is exemplified in the well-known in- sects of the Bee and Wasp tribe and many others. The sixth order is entitled Diptera, and contains such insects as are furnished with two wings only. In this order rank Flies, strictly so called, as well as Gnats, and a great variety of other insects. The seventh and last order is termed Aptera, and consists of such insects as are totally destitute of wings, as Spiders, Centipedes or Scolopendras, Fleas, and many others. To this order also belong the numerous species of the Crab and Lobster tribe, which by some naturalists are excluded from the class of Insects. It may be here observed, in order to prevent mistakes, that some of the Cole- opterous Insects are destitute of wings, having v. vi. p. i. 2 ! 18 INSECTS. only the upper sheaths or elytra; yet by no means belong to the present order of Aptera. In some few species of Insects it will also be found that one sex is winged, while the other is apterous, as in some of the Moth tribe. The Aphides also, in the order Hemiptera, are known to have some individuals of the same species winged, and others wingless. These instances may sometimes mislead a beginning entomologist; but he will very soon learn to distinguish the real tribe to which the insect belongs, and will not hastily refer it to the Aptera. SCARABMUS MACROPUS. CHARACTER GENERICUS. Antenna clavate capitulo fiffili. Tibia anticae faspius dentatze. Lin. Syst. Nat, p. 541. CHARACTER SPECIFICUS. Scarabasus fcutellatus viridis nitens, fubtus cupreo-auratus, pe&ore porredto, femoribus pofticis crafliffimis. TNSECTUM hoc, formae infolitae, et eximiae pulchritudinis, nullus unquam defcnpfit phyficus. Creditur porro non aliud xtare Specimen praeter id quod depinximus, ab Ulyfippone in Vngliam illatum ; quodque generafTe aiunt Potofos in America Uiftrali. Oftendit tabula naturalem infecli maenitudinem. THE KANGUROO BEETLE. GENERIC CHARACTER. Antenna divided at the tip or head into feveral lamellae. Tibia, or fecond joints of the fore-legs, generally toothed. SPECIFIC CHARACTER. .Scutellated bright-green beetle, gold-coppery beneath ; with projecting breaft : the thighs of the hind-legs very thick. j"" 1 H I S highly lingular and beautiful infect, which has not as ye been defcribed by any fyftematic Naturalift, and of which le Specimen itfelf is unique, was received from Lifbon ; and is appofed to be a native of Potofi, in South America. It is repre- ?nted in its natural fize. _z 03 - u § "5- ^ s <5 INSECTS. ORDER COLOPTERA. S CAR ABiEUS. BEETLE. Generic Character. Antenna clavatae, capitulo fissili. Tibice saepius dentate. Corpus crassum, compact- Antenna or horns clavate, with a fissile tip. Legs generally toothed. Body thick and compact. JL HIS genus is extremely extensive. Among the most remarkable species is the Scarabceus Hercules or Hercules Beetle, which sometimes measures not less than five, or even six inches in length: the wing-shells are of a smooth surface, of a blueish or brownish grey colour, sometimes 10 BEETLE. nearly black, and commonly marked with several small, round deep-black spots, of different sizes: the head and limbs are coal-black: from the upper part of the breast or thorax proceeds a horn or process of enormous length in proportion to the body: it is sharp at the tip, where it curves slightly downwards, and is marked beneath by two or three denticulations, and furnished throughout its whole length with a fine, short, velvet-like pile, of a brownish orange-colour : from the front of the head proceeds also a strong horn, about two thirds the length of the former, toothed on its upper sur- face but not furnished with any of the velvet-like pile which appears on the former. This species is a native of several parts of South America, where great numbers are said to be sometimes seen on the tree called the Mamraasa*, rasp- ing off the rind of the slender branches by work- ing nimbly round them with the horns, till they cause the juice to flow, which they drink to intoxication, and thus fall senseless from the tree. This however, as the learned Fabricius has well observed, seems not very probable ; since the thoracic horn, being bearded on its lower surface, would undoubtedly be made bare by this opera- tion. This species, from the large size of all its parts, affords an admirable example of the cha- racters of the genus. It varies much in size, and it may even be doubted whether some of the smaller specimens have not been occasionally re- * Mammsea Americana. Lin. Mammee Tree. Bruivn Jam* 1/1 > M a- 3 S C AEAB.S.ITS <> 6b ckchsz/rer Jlzativ j-adje* i8c$, Odf.i Lc ntlon^.Tublui'Jted by &J&a*%rfcyJ ? Uet Street* BEETLE. 21 garded by authors as distinct species. The female is destitute both of the frontal and thoracic horn, but in other points resembles the male. The Goliah Beetle, Scarabieus Goliathus, is highly remarkable both in point of size and colour: it is larger in body than the preceding, and has a rose-coloured thorax, marked with lon- gitudinal black stripes or variegations, and purple- brown wing-sheaths: the head is divided in front into two forked processes: the limbs are black, and very strong. It is a native of some parts of Africa. A supposed variety sometimes occurs, in which both the thorax and wing-sheaths are of a pale yellowish brown instead of rose-colour, and are marked with black variegations. One of the most common European Beetles is the Cockchaffer, or Scarabceus Mdolontha. This insect is extremely familiar in our own island, the larva or caterpillar inhabiting ploughed lands, and feeding on the roots of corn, &c. and the complete insect making its appearance during the middle and the decline of summer. The Cockchaffer sometimes appears in such prodigious quantities as almost to strip the trees of their foliage, and to produce mischiefs nearly approaching to those of the Locust tribe. It appears from a paper by a Mr. Molineux, printed in the Philosophical Trans- actions for the year l6g7, that some particular districts in Ireland were overrun by this insect in a wonderful manner. The account runs as follows. " These insects were first noticed in this kingdom in 1688. They appeared on the South-west coast 22 BEETLE. of Galway, brought thither by a south-west wind, one of the most common, I might almost say trade-winds, of this country. From hence they penetrated into the inland parts towards Hedd- ford, about twelve miles north of the town of Gal way: here and there in the adjacent country multitudes of them appeared among the trees and hedges in the day-time, hanging by the boughs in clusters, like bees when they swarm. In this posture they continued, with little or no motion, during the heat of the sun; but towards evening or sunset they would all disperse and fly about with a strange humming noise like the beating of distant drums, and in such vast numbers that they darkened the air for the space of two or three miles square. Persons travelling on the roads, or abroad in the fields, found it very uneasy to make their way through them, they would so beat and knock themselves against their faces in their flight, and with such a force as to make the place smart, and leave a slight mark behind them. In a short time after their coming, they had so entirely eat up and destroyed all the leaves of the trees for some miles round, that the whole country, though in the middle of summer, was left as bare as in the depth of winter ; and the noise they made in gnawing the leaves made a sound much resem- bling the sawing of timber. They also came into the gardens and destroyed the buds, blossoms, and leaves of all the fruit-trees, so that they were left perfectly naked; nay many that were more delicate than the rest, lost their sap as well as BEETLE. 23 leaves, and quite withered away, so that they never recovered again. Their multitudes spread so exceedingly that they infested houses, and be- came extremely offensive and troublesome. Their numerous young, hatched from the eggs which they had lodged under ground, near the surface of the earth, did still more harm in that close re- tirement than all the flying swarms of their parents had done abroad; for this destructive brood, lying under ground, eat up the roots of corn and grass, and thus consumed the support both of man and beast, This plague was happily checked several ways. High winds and wet misling weather destroyed many millions of them in a day; and when this constitution of the air pre- vailed, they were so enfeebled that they would let go their hold, and drop to the ground from the branches, and so little a fall as this was sufficient quite to disable, and sometimes perfectly kill them. Nay it was observable that, even when they were most vigorous, a slight blow would for some time stun them, if not deprive them of life. During these unfavourable seasons of the weather, the swine and poultry of the country would watch under the trees for their falling, and feed and fatten upon them; and even the poorer sort of the country people, the country then labouring under a scarcity of provision, had a way of dressing them, and lived upon them as food. In a little time it was found that smoke was another thing very offensive to them, and by burning heath, fern, &c. the gardens were secured, or if the 24 BEETLE. insects had already entered, they were thus driven out again. Towards the latter end of summer they returned of themselves, and so totally disap- peared, that in a few days you could not see one left. A year or two ago, all along the South West Coast of the county of Galway, for some miles together, there were found dead on the shore such infinite multitudes of them, and in such vast heaps, that, by a moderate estimate, it was com- puted there could not be less than forty or fifty horse-loads in all; which was a new colony, or a supernumerary swarm from the same place whence the first stock came, in 1688, driven by the wind from their native land, which I conclude to be Normandy or Britany in France, it being a country much infested with this insect, and from whence England heretofore has been pestered in a similar manner with swarms of this vermin; but these, meeting with a contrary wind, before they could land, were stopped, and, tired with the voyage, were all. driven into the sea, which, by the motion of its waves and tides, cast their float- ing bodies in heaps on the shore. It is observed that they seldom keep above a year together in a place, and their usual stages or marches are com- puted to be about six miles in a year. Hitherto their progress has been westerly, following the course of that wind which blows most commonly in this country." It is recorded by Mouffet, in his History of Insects, that in the year 1574, in the month of February, so great a quantity of these insects S CAIABAFJ ■I Scar:nasicorius. o vas Xarva Tu pa lecj.OaZiXo-ndcTuTullCrhed / 1 i'. IbarsleyZUetSayM BEETLE. 25 were driven into the river Severn, that they totally prevented the mills from working, and were with difficulty extirpated by the united efforts of the people, and the various kinds of hawks, ducks, and other birds, which preyed upon them with avidity. In Normandy, according to the same author, they generally make their appearance every third year. In our own island the county of Norfolk seems occasionally to have suffered most from the ra- vages of the Cockchaffer. In the year 1751 in particular many crops are said to have been de- stroyed by it. The larva or caterpillar of this insect is said to be two, and sometimes three years, in passing from its first form into that of the perfect insect. The eggs are laid in small detached heaps beneath the surface of some clod, and the young, when first hatched, are scarcely more than the eighth of an inch in length, gradually advancing in their growth, and occasionally shifting their skins, till they arrive at the length of near two inches. At this period they begin to prepare for their change into a chrysalis or pupa, selecting for the purpose some small clod of earth, in which they form an oval cavity, and, after a certain space, divest themselves of their last skin, and immediately ap- pear in the chrysalis form, in which they con- tinue till the succeeding summer, when the Beetle emerges from its retirement, and commits its de- predations on the leaves of trees, &c. breeds, and deposits its eggs in a favourable situation, after which its life is of very short duration. 26 BEETLE. A much more elegant insect of this kind is the Scarabceus Fullo or Variegated Beetle. It is nearly twice the size of the Cockchaffer, and of an elegant chesnut-colour, with the wing-sheaths beautifully marbled with white variegations. It is common in many parts of Europe, but extremely rare in England. A species of peculiar beauty is the Golden Beetle, Scarabceus auratus ; it is about the size of the common or black garden beetle,' but of a somewhat flatter shape; and of the most brilliant, Tarnished golden-green colour, with the wing- shells varied towards the lower part by a few slight, transverse, white streaks. This beautiful species is not uncommon during the hottest part of summer, frequenting various plants and flowers; its larva or caterpillar is commonly found in the hollows of old trees, or among the loose dry soil at their roots, and sometimes in the earth of ant-hills. It remains about three years before it changes to a pupa or chrysalis, out of which the insect emerges in a short times afterward. This may be sufficient for a general idea of the Linmean genus Scarabceus. It may be added that the species are extremely numerous, and that so great is the singularity of appearance in many kinds, that even the most romantic imagination can hardly conceive a structure of horn or process which is not exemplified in some of the tribe. SCAJRAEiEUSo Scar.Fiilld. ■ *$c$,Cet*i £cfid#7h FtLbHshed £\ 6.IietV.r/$\- first* finest XiU CAST'S » Lueanus Cervus JTmth. .cciJf} iSc§,OctVi Lcnden jPuW.fhfdliy G.Ktarjly, Fleet Street LUCANUS. STAG-CHAFFER. Generic Character Antenna clavatae : clava compressa latere latiore pectinato-fissili. Maxilla porrectae, exsertae, dentatae. Antenna clavated, with compressed tip, divided into lamellae on the inner side. Jaws stretched forwards, ex- serted, and toothed. X HIS genus, as the reader will perceive by at- tending to the generic character, differs chiefly from the preceding in having the jaws consider- ably elongated, so as to give the appearance of a pair of denticulated horns ; while the antennae terminate in a laterally-flattened tip, divided on the interior side into several lamellae. The principal species is the Lucanus Ccrcus y commonly known by the name of the Stag- Beetle, or Stagchaffcr. It is the largest of all the Euro- pean coleopterous insects, sometimes measuring near two inches and a half in length, from the tips of the jaws to the end of the body. Its general colour is a deep chesnut, with the thorax and head, which is of a squarish form, of a blacker cast: and the jaws are often of a brighter or red- der chesnut-colour than the wing-shells: the legs 28 STAG-CHAFFER. and under-parts are coal-black, and the wings, which, except during flight, are concealed under the shells, are large, and of a fine pale yellowish- brown. This remarkable insect is chiefly found in the neighbourhood of oak trees, delighting in the sweet exsudation or honey-dew so frequently observed on the leaves. Its larva, which perfectly resembles that of the genuine Beetles, is also found in the hollows of oak trees ; residing in the fine vegetable mould usually seen in such cavities, and feeding on the softer parts of the decayed wood. It is of very considerable size, of a pale yellowish or whitish brown colour, and when stretched out at full length, measures nearly four inches*. Its general posture however is the curved one exhibited in the annexed plate. When arriv- ed at its full size, which, according to some, is hardly sooner than the fifth or sixth year, it forms, by frequently turning itself, and moistening it with its glutinous saliva, a smooth oval hollow in the earth in which it lies, and afterwards remaining per- fectly still for the space of near a month, divests itself of its skin, and commences pupa or chrysalis. It is now of a shorter form than before, of a rather * It has been supposed by Roesel, and not without a consider- able degree of probability, that these Larvae were the Cossi of the ancient Romans, which, according to Pliny, were in high esteem as an article of luxury. What renders this supposition the more probable is that the larvae of a species of Cerambyx, as well as of a Curculio, are well known to be greatly admired by the inhabitants of the West Indian islands, and are frequently collected at a great expence, as a highly delicate dish, being broiled or fried for that purpose. STAG-CHAFFER. 2() deeper colour, and exhibits in a striking manner the rudiments of the large extended jaws and broad head so conspicuous in the perfect insect: the legs are also proportionally larger and longer than in the larva state. The ball of earth in which this chrysalis is contained is considerably larger than a hen's egg, and of a rough exterior surface, but perfectly smooth and polished within. The chrysalis lies about three months before it gives birth to the complete insect, which usually emerges in the months of July and August. The time however of this insect's growth and appear- ance in all its states varies much, according to the difference of seasons. It is not very uncommon in many parts of England. The commonly supposed female differs so much in appearance from the male, that it has by some authors been considered as a distinct species. It is not only smaller than the former, but totally destitute of the long and large ramified jaws, in- stead of which it has a pair of very short curved ones, slightly denticulated on their inner side : the head is also of considerably smaller diameter than the thorax. In point of colour it resembles the former. Among those who consider it as a distinct species may be numbered the ingenious Mr. Marsham, F. L. S. who, in his Entomologia Britannica, assures us that the real female insect extremely resembles the male, but is smaller, and wants the larger denticulation on the inner side of each horn. The generally supposed female he distinguishes by the title of Lucamis inermis. L. 30 STAG-CHAFFER. coiwexus brunneus, maxillis breoibus : dente laterali ekvato. The exotic species of this genus are mostly na- tives of America, and one in particular, frequently found in Virginia, is so nearly allied to the English Stag-Beetle as hardly to differ, except in having fewer denticulations or divisions on the jaws. A highly elegant species has lately been dis- covered in New Holland. This differs from the rest in being entirely of a beautiful golden green colour, with short, sharp-pointed, denticulated jaws of a brilliant copper-colour. The whole length of the Insect is rather more than an inch. 7- 33ERMESTER Zardiirius ^vtsrft J). Muriruis J). 77ndat7ts Z> Pellw ^soc-a^^^s-a^ D. fcttio J). Muri/uts Ante7V/JZ. JEeartt .ivw// . -zgoS OctiZoiuton..I'iJ>tt/}iea by G.Fcarjlcy Fleet Street. 'liflua by DERMESTES. LEATHER-CHAFFER Generic Character. Antenna clavatae, capitulo perfoliato: articulistribus crassioribus. Thorax convexus, vix mar- ginatus. Caput sub thorace inflexum condens. Antenna clavated, with per- foliate tip, the three last joints being larger than the rest. Thorax convex, scarce or very slightly margined. Head withdrawn at pleasure beneath the thorax. HIS genus consists chiefly of small insects. Their larvae are found among skins, furs, and vari- ous animal substances, of a dry kind, which they gradually injure, and are numbered among the most destructive insects in Museums, devouring specimens of birds, quadrupeds, collections of dried plants, &c: they are of a lengthened oval shape, and more or less hairy, especially towards the end of the body, where, in some, the hairs form a kind of spreading tuft, which the animal raises on being suddenly disturbed. The complete insects are mostly of a lengthened oval shape, and have a habit of withdrawing the head be- neath the thorax when handled. One of the most familiar species is the Dermestes lardarius, which is about a third of an inch in length, and of a 32 LEATHER-CHAFFER. dusky brown colour, with the upper half of the wing-shells whitish or ash-coloured, marked with black specks. The larva is often found about dried or salted meat, lard, &c. &c. Another species, seen in almost every house during the early part of the spring and summer, is the Dermestes Pellio, It is smaller than the preceding, measuring scarcely a quarter of an inch in length, and is of a very dark brown or blackish colour, with a white speck on the middle of each wing-shell. 8 Pti^us. H-fetidicus magnified % Ptiniis faticficutf M.Grffidt^ scu/p. iSc$, Pctfi Zends n-J^ii/t/ij-AeJ / 1 - 6° Sear. r/ei ; F/eerSrrret. PTINUS. PTINUS. Generic Character. Antenna filiformes ; articu- lis ultimis majoribus. Thorax subrotundus, im- marginatus, caput exci- piens. Antenna filiform, with the three last joints largest. Thorax roundish r without distinct margin, receiving occasionally the head. HE genus Ptinus, like that of Dermestes, con- sists of small insects which, in general, have simi- lar habits, living both in their larva and complete state among dry animal substances, and some species in dry wood, committing great havock among the older articles of furniture, which they pierce with innumerable holes, thus causing their gradual destruction. To this genus belongs the celebrated Insect distinguished by the title of the Death- Watch, or Ptinus fatidicus. Among the popular superstitions which the almost general illumination of modern times has not been able to obliterate, the dread of the Death- Watch may well be considered as one of the most predominant, and still continues to disturb the habitations of rural tranquillity with groundless fears and absurd apprehensions. It is not indeed to be imagined that they who are ear v. vi. r. i. 3 34 PTINUS. traced in the more important cares of providing to to A the immediate necessaries of life should have either leisure or inclination to investigate with philosophic exactness the causes of a particular sound: yet it must be allowed to be a very sin- gular circumstance that an animal so common should not be more universally known, and the peculiar noise which it occasionally makes be more universally understood. It is chiefly in the advanced state of spring that this alarming little animal commences its sound, which is no other than the call or signal by which the male and female are led to each other, and which may be considered as analogous to the call of birds; though not owing to the voice of the insect, but to its beating on any hard substance with the shield or fore-part of its head. The prevailing number of distinct strokes which it beats is from seven to nine or eleven ; which very circumstance may perhaps still add in some degree to the ominous character which it bears among the vulgar. These sounds or beats are given in pretty quick suc- cession, and are repeated at uncertain intervals ; and in old houses where the insects are numerous, may be heard at almost every hour of the day ; especially if the weather be warm. The sound exactly resembles that which may be made by beating moderately hard with the nail on a table. The insect is of a colour so nearly resembling that of decayed wood, viz. an obscure greyish brown, that, it may for a considerable time elude the search of the enquirer. It is aboujfc a quarter of PTINUS. 35 an inch in length, and is moderately thick in pro- portion, and the wing-shells are marked with numerous irregular variegations of a lighter or greyer cast than the ground-colour. In the twentieth and twenty-second volume of the Philo- sophical Transactions may he found a description of this species by the celebrated Derham, with some very just observations relative to its habits and general appearance ; and it seems singular that so remarkable an insect should have almost escaped the notice of more modern entomologists. In the twelfth edition of the Systema Naturae of Linnaeus it does not appear ; but is probably the Dermestes testdatas of Fabricius, in which case he seems to have placed it in a wrong genus. Ridi- culous, and even incredible as it may appear, it is an animal that may in some measure be tamed : at least it may be so far familiarized as to be made to beat occasionally, by taking it out of its confinement, and beating on a table or board, when it will readily answer the noise, and will continue to beat as often as required. We must be careful not to confound this ani- mal, which is the real Death' Watch of the vulgar, emphatically so called, with a much smaller insect of a very different genus, which makes a sound like the ticking of a watch, and continues it for a long time without intermission. It belongs to a totally different order, and is the Termes pulsa- torium of Linn as us. I cannot conclude this slight account of the Death- Watch without quoting a sentence from 36 PTINUS. that celebrated work the Pseudodoxia Epidemica of the learned Sir Thomas Brown, who on this subject expresses himself in words like these. Cf He that could eradicate this error from the mir.'. is c f the people would save from many a cold sweat the n meticulous heads of nurses and grand- mothers*." A very destructive little species of Ptinus is often seen in collections of dried plants, &c. &c. remarkable for the ravages it commits both in its larva and perfect state. The larva resembles that of a beetle in miniature, being about the eighth of an inch long, and of a thickish form, lying with the body bent, and is of a white colour. The perfect insect is very small, measuring only about the tenth of an inch, and is slender, of a pale yellowish chesnut colour, appearing, when magni- fied, beset with small short hairs, with the wing- covers finely striped by rows of small impressed points or dots. The ravages of the larva are most remarkable during the summer. The Ptinus Far of Linnaeus is another very de- structive species. Its length is somewhat more than the tenth of an inch, and its colour pale chesnut-brown, sometimes marked on the wing- covers by a pair of greyish bands: the antennas are rather long and slender; the body remarkably convex, and the thorax, when magnified, appears * The reader will perceive that I have repeated the history of the Death-Watch from the description which I long ago published in the Naturalist's Miscellany. Btinits fejTiiaineus Sead>, l&7,ff'tw &fi ofT.pecd/iicorms maani/ied. iSoi Oct': I fu&tishtd bv fr.Kcarslcv, Meet Strut London • \**lfl PTINUS. 37 to have a projecting point on each side. Its larva resembles that of the preceding species, and is found in similar situations. Ptinus pectinicornis is readily distinguished by the remarkable appearance of the antennae, the longer joints of which are so deeply pectinated as to have the aspect of feathered antennae. It is one of the smaller species, measuring in length about the eighth of an inch, and is of a slender habit, with a subcylir.dric body. It is often found in old wood, and among papers, books, &c. which it perforates and destroys. HISTER. HISTER. Generic Character Antenna capitatae capitulo solidiusculo ; infimo arti- culo coinpresso, decur- vato. Caput intra corpus retrac- tile. Os forcipatum. Elytra corpore breviora. Tibia anticae dentatse. Antenna headed by a some- what solid tip; lowest joint compressed and de- curved. Head retractile. Mouth for- cipated. Wing-sheaths shorter than the body. Fore-legs toothed. HE most common European species of this genus is the Hister unicolor of Linmeus. It is entirely of a glossy coal-black colour, and of a slightly flattened shape; varying considerably in size, but usually measuring about the third of an inch in length, and is often seen in gardens, sandy fields, &c. Its larva seems to be unknown. Hister quadrimaculatus. Lin. has much the ap- pearance of a small beetle; its shape is strongly convex, and its colour black, with two dull-red bars on each wing-shell; viz. one at the base, and the other, smaller, at the tip. It is found about dunghills, &c. HlSTEKn JO Ifi.rter uniro7o7- H. U.magnititd az under .fide. ■ 2$o$, Odfi LeTtdcTV.FulkjJud h\- C Keanrky, Fleet Jtreet 11 head rruujru/ied. fivrinu? ita- tator. nat.,sizA. ?iatator m/tqnihed Jica£/> ■ V/ larva m/ignihsd l8og.0et*l 2j c rule ti, Published by G Kearjltv, Fleet Street GYRINUS. GLIMMERCHAFFER. Generic Character. Antenna clavatse, rigidse, capite breviores. Oculi quatuor; duobus su- pra, duobus infra. Antenna clavated, stiff, shorter than the head. Eyes (apparently) four; two above, and two below. X HE genus Gyrinus is furnished with extremely short, stiff antennne, appearing to consist of an undivided pi£ce or joint; but, if accurately in- spected by means of a magnifier, they will be found to be composed of very numerous close-set joints: the eyes are so placed as to appear double on each side the head; viz. one above and the other below the base of the antenna. The most remarkable European species is the Gyrinus natator, a small Insect, about a quarter of an inch in length, of an oval shape, with some- what sharpened extremities, and of a black or grey-black colour, with so lucid a surface as to shine like a piece of looking-glass in the full sun- shine. It is an inhabitant of the waters, and is chiefly found in rivulets, being generally seen in great multitudes, and in very brisk motion. It is difficult to catch, diving with astonishing celerity when disturbed; the hinder legs being very broad, 40 GLIMMERCHAFFER. finely webbed with minute hairs, and most curi- ously formed for exercising the office of fins or oars. The larva is of a highly singular aspect, having a very lengthened body, furnished, exclu- sive of six legs on the fore-parts, with a great many lateral appendages or processes down the body ; those towards the extremity considerably exceeding the rest. In its motions it is extremely agile, swimming in a kind of serpentine manner, and preying on the smaller and weaker water- insects, minute worms, &c. the head is armed with a pair of forceps, pierced on each side the tip with a small foramen, through which it sucks the juices of the animals on which it preys : the colour of this larva is a very pale or whitish brown, with a high degree of transparency, which renders it a highly curious object for the microscope : its length, when full-grown, is about three quarters of an inch. When the time of its changes arrives, it forms for itself a small oval cell or case on a leaf of sedge or other convenient water-plant, and after casting its skin, becomes a chrysalis: this change usually takes place in the month of August, and the complete insect emerges in that of September. When these animals are congregated together in great multitudes on the surface of the water, which frequently happens in hot weather, they have been observed to diffuse a strong or disagree- able smell to a considerable distance. Like other water-beetles, they fly only by night. They de- posit their eggs, which are very small, white, and of a somewhat cylindric form, on the stems of GLIMMERCHAFFER. 41 water-plants: they hatch in the space of about eight days, and immediately begin to swim about with much briskness in quest of prey. Most of the exotic Gyrini have a strong general resemblance to this species, but differ in size and colour, though none hitherto discovered can be considered as large insects. PAUSUS. PAUSUS. Generic Character. Antenna biarticulatae, clava maxima, uncinata, pedi- cellata, mobili. Caput porrectum. Elytra flexilia, deflexa, truncata. Antenna of two joints, the upper very large, inflated, moveable, and booked. Head stretched forwards. Wing-sheaths flexile, de- flected, truncated. X HIS genus does not exist in the twelfth edition of the Systema Naturae, but made its first ap- pearance in a dissertation published at Upsal by Linnaeus, in the year 1775. At that period only one species was known. In the year 1 796, Dr. Adam Afzelius, then residing at the British settle- ment at Sierra Leona, discovered a second, and has described both with elaborate exactness in a paper on this genus published in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Linnaean Society of London. To this paper nothing can be objected but its extreme prolixity. I shall therefore take the liberty of here reducing it within reasonable compass. The etymology of the name Dr. Afze- lius imagines to be from the Greek *au«? , signify- ing a pause, cessation, or rest; for Linnaeus, now old and infirm, and sinking under the weight of Pat sirs /■' P. jpfurrcceros P. mieroeepha///. head magnified head magnified P. X magnified P. m. magnified ffsstfn i^o^.e'rtSi Lrndcn.Tiifi/i'-'hrti by GJCearsZey.FUet Srrsei PAUSUS. 43 age and labour, saw no probability of continuing any longer his career of glory. He might there- fore be supposed to say " hie meta laborum" as it in reality proved, at least with regard to Insects; Pausus being the last he ever described. He named the Insect Pausus microcephalus. The head is uncommonly small ; the thorax broader than the head, and very uneven, the two parts being entirely separated by a transverse furrow ; the foremost division is elevated into a sharp ridge resembling a collar, and the hindmost is depressed or cut out in the middle into a cavity, which is obtuse behind, dilated and deepened before, and encompassed on the sides with diverging and out- wardly declining lobes, being rounded at the top, and provided with shining hairs of a fulvous colour and bent inwards: the elytra are without dots, and rather longer than the abdomen: the under or real wings are sooty, and without the least glossiness: the abdomen has the terminal segment very retuse, and the margin of the next before it is visibly raised, the pivots of the antenme are black, very bright, and at first sight might be easily taken for eyes; the under joint is furnished with a wart on the inner margin of the top, covered with papillary or cartilaginous hairs: the upper joint or clava is dotted, much larger than the head, and of the shape of an oblong spheroid, being rounded in front and compressed, with the carina raised into a sharp edge, provided on the vertex with four tubercles set in a row and tipped with hairs, and elongated behind into an obtuse tube, 44 PAUSUS. laterally compressed, above depressed and under- neath having a knob, which, in moving, touches the bundle of hairs on the top of the under joint: the pedicle is long and crooked, its upper part being broader, compressed, and keeled in front : the in- terior palpi are of a lanceolate-oblong shape, and furnished with very minute hinges: the mandibles have small hinges, and the inferior sheath is much larger than the superior: the hind-legs are a little shorter than the others: the joints of the tarsi are difficultly distinguished. This rare insect is a native of Banana island, and Sierra Leona in Africa. Its colour is a blackish brown. It is represented on the annexed plate both in its natural size, and considerably magnified. The second species, or Pausus spluerocerus, is thus described by Dr. Afzelius. " I had been in Africa almost three years before I happened to meet with this remarkable little insect; and then it was quite accidentally. There was a house building for the Governor, on an eminence called Thornton Hill at the South end of Free-Town in Sierra Leona; and in the begin- ning of the year 17Q5, several apartments having been got ready, so as to be habitable, one of them was allotted to me, and I removed into it in the end of the month of January. I had not resided there many days, when one evening, having just lighted my candle and begun to write, I observed something dropping down from the ceiling before me upon the table; which, from its singular ap- pearance, attracted my particular attention. It PAUSUS. 45 remained for a little while quite immoveable, as if stunned or frightened, but began soon to crawl very slowly and steadily. I then caught it, and, from the remembrance I had of the Linnaean species, I directly took it for a non-descript of this genus. Some few days after, coming into my room from supper, with a light in my hand, and having put it upon the table, there instantly fell another down from the ceiling. The third I was favoured with by the then Governor, Mr. Dawes, who informed me that it had dropped down before him on the table, just when he had entered his room, and was going to write. The other three, which I afterwards collected, were also got upon similar occasions, and from thence I thought I had some reason to conclude that it is a nocturnal animal, that it becomes benumbed by candle- light, that it lives in wood, and prefers new-built houses, &c. After the end of February I never saw any more. The last which I caught I put into a box, and left confined there for a day or two. One evening, going to look at it, and happening to stand between the light and the box, so that my shadow fell upon the insect, I observed to my great astonishment, the globes of -the antennas, like two lanthorns, spreading a dim phosphoric light. This singular phenomenon raised my curiosity, and, after having examined it several times that night, I resolved to repeat my researches the following day. But the animal, being exhausted, died before the morning, and the light disappeared. And afterwards, not being 46 PAUSUS. able to find any more specimens, I was prevented from ascertaining- the fact by reiterated experi- ments at different times; which I therefore must recommend to other naturalists who may have an opportunity of visiting Sierra Leona, requesting that they would particularly inquire into this curious circumstance. 1 shall now only add some few remarks, shewing in what manner this new species differs from the old one. Not being quite so broad, it looks as if it were longer, and more cylindrical: it is also of a lighter or chesnut colour, and all over very glossy. The head is larger, but its annular base part smaller, and contracted: it is furnished with a little horn in the middle, be- tween the eyes, which is strait, conic, and tipped with a tuft of cartilaginous hairs: the clypeus is only depressed, and the jugular triangle wider: the ej T es are large, and very evident, those of the male black, though in a certain light appearing greenish; but those of the female are like pearls, or as if they were covered with a crystalline mem- brane: the angles of the brim of the socket are small and rounded at the top, and the hinder one lower than the eye. The pivots of the antennas are not so discernible as in the former species, being like the surrounding parts in colour: the under joint is without any hairy papilla or wart: the upper joint or clava is of the size of the head, quite globular, and resembles an inflated bladder, being almost pellucid, and of a light flesh-colour: the keel is nothing more than a raised line, finish- ing on the vertex in only one chesnut-brown PAUSUS. 47 tubercle covered with cartilaginous hairs : behind there is a little conical shining hook, of the same colour and with the same sort of hairs bending outwardly, being of equal length with the horn on the head, but narrower : the pedicle is short, strait, and cylindrical. The interior palpi, furnished with very visible hinges, are a little thicker to- wards the top, but look in some directions as if they were filiform : the mandibles have large hinges, and the superior sheath almost as long as the inferior one, and nearly cylindrical. The thorax is of the same breadth with the head, and not very uneven, the two parts being separated by a furrow only on the sides and underneath, the foremost above and on the sides resembling an annular segment, and the hinder one impressed in the middle with a mark somewhat like two small diverging wings of a blackish silvery colour. The elytra are shorter than the abdomen, and minutely punctated: the under wings are of a shining and changeable violaceous colour, and not very dark: the abdomen has the terminal segment a little convex, and in the female more so than in the male: underneath, the third and last segments are darker than the others, the legs are all of equal length; the tarsi longer than those of the Pausus microcephalus, and have both the joints and the claws much more distinct." BYRRHUS. BYRRHUS. Generic Character ^n^2??rf , c]avatse,subsolidse, Antenna clavated, subsolid, subcompressse. subcompressed. Tj HE Insects belonging to this genus have an ovate body, convex or subglobular in some species, with the wing-shells covered by a short pile, and the head is retracted under the thorax. The Byrrhus Scrophularice is a small insect, of the size of one of the smallest kind of Coccinellse or Lady-Birds; its colour is a dark brown, clouded With broken or irregular white bands, and the edges constituting the line of division between the wing-sheaths is red. This little insect is observed to be more frequently found on the plant called Scrophularia aquatica than elsewhere. Byrrhus Pilula is a larger species, equalling, or rather exceeding the size of the common Lady- Bird or Coccinella septem-punctata. Its colour is a dull brown, with a few obscure blackish lines down the wing-shells : it is of an extremely convex shape, and, when disturbed, contracts its limbs, and lies in an inert state, resembling the appear- ance of a seed or pill. It is found on various plants, and about garden-ground, &c. the antennae BYRlLHXr.S J°ilitfo 13 JtTusceommh '*■"> Scrop/uilaritf JlSttiA tlt2£&9 ■ -i8oS,Octu.J,0nd0Ti,.J>uAh/?U(l by a.Kinrjky , fleet Srr,*c/ BYRRHUS. 49 in this species are longer than in others, and rather perfoliated than merely knobbed. Byrrhus Museorum resembles Byrrhus Scro- phulariae, but wants the red suture of the wing- shells: it is often seen in houses, and commits depredations in animal and vegetable collections, in the same manner as the insects of the genus Ptinus and Dermestes. v. VI. P. i. SILPHA. SILPHA, Generic Character. Antenna extrorsum crassi- ores. Elytra marginata. Caput prominens. Thorax planiusculus, mar- ginatus. Antenna thickening towards the tip. Wing-sheaths margined. Head prominent. Thorax flattish, margined. x HE insects of the genus Silpha are generally found among decaying animal or vegetable sub- stances, frequenting dung-hills, carrion, &c. and deposit their eggs chiefly in the latter. The Larvae are of a lengthened shape, and of an un- pleasant appearance, being generally roughened with minute spines and protuberances. The most remarkable of the European species, and which is by no means uncommon in our own country, is the Silpha Vespillo, distinguished by having the wing-sheaths considerably shorter than the abdo~ men, or as if cut off at the tips : they are also each marked by two waved, orange-coloured, trans- verse bars, the rest of the. insect being black : the general length of the animal is about three quarters of an inch. This insect seeks out some decaying animal substance in which it may deposit H SllPHA. nurcsih germanicas thcraeiajs atrata 4 macula&o * -it (}fvrj 'soni&lay . Yes p Mo iZ+j*A ..-. -%*lp / Sc^Ocf.i r.cndeti. /V/A/vW^r o. 8eanrfa>, FU*t . Street SILPHA. 51 its eggs, and in order to their greater security, contrives to bury it under ground. Three or four insects, working in concert, have been known to drag under the surface the body of so large an animal as a Mole in the space of an hour, so that no trace of it has appeared above ground. The eggs deposited by the parent insects are white, and of an oval or rather subcylindric shape: from these are hatched the Larvae, which, when full- grown, are more than an inch in length, and of a yellowish-white colour, with a scaly orange- coloured shield or bar across the middle of each division of the body. Each of these larvas forms for itself an oval cell in the ground, in which it changes to a yellowish chrysalis, resembling that of a beetle; out of which, in the space of about eighteen days, proceeds the perfect insect. This species possesses a considerable degree of ele- gance, but generally diffuses a very strong and unpleasant smell : it flies with considerable strength and rapidity, and is generally seen on the wing during the hottest part of the day. In many parts of North America is found a variety, differing merely in size, being far larger than the European kind, and measuring an inch and half in length. The Silpha Germanica of Linnaeus so much re- sembles the S. Vespillo that it seems scarcely to differ except in colour, being entirely coal-black. It is found in similar situations with the preceding species. Several of the Silphae are of an entirely oval 52, SILPHA. outline: of this kind is the S. thoracica, which is easily distinguishable by its red thorax, every other part of the animal being coal-black; it is about half an inch in length. Silpha atraia is of similar size, but totally black, and has the wing-sheaths marked by three rising lines: its larva, which may be found in gardens, is of a lengthened shape and of a black colour. The genus Silpha may be considered as a numer- ous one, but few of the species are of any great beauty, and many are of very small size. CAS SIB A o rtr/i//.s ///•/•/// ;u/ /,if< ra&s grossa rruuyinata. J£/rrxrf£ ' I 'ct?rxZondcnd?u&&rkedsby &J&arstyjnee6S*rem CASSIDA. CASSIDA. Generic Character. Antenna moniliformes, ex- trorsum crassiores. Caput sub thoracis clypeo piano reconditum. Thorax et Elytra dilatato- marginata. Corpus ovale, convexum, subtus planum. Antenna moniliform, thick- ening towards the tip. Head concealed beneath the shield of the thorax. Thorax and Wing-Sheaths dilated and margined. Body oval convex, flat beneath. JL HIS genus is readily distinguished by the singular manner in which the thorax and wing- sheaths cover the head and body, which, when the insect is laid on its back, appears somewhat like a tortoise in miniature. The genus is numer- ous, and among the exotic species are several of great beauty. Some of the European species are also of an elegant aspect, as the common green Cassida, or Cassida viridis of Linnaeus, which is often seen during the summer months in gardens, &c. especially on mint and other verticillate plants. Its length is nearly a quarter of an inch ; its shape oval, and its colour bright green above, the body or under part being coal-black. The larva, which is of a highly singular appearance, is oval, of a yellowish brown colour, and has the body edged 54 CASSIDA. with a row or fringe of projecting fibres, the two terminal ones being much longer tllan the rest, and generally carried in an upright position while the animal is in motion. When ready for its change, it fastens itself to a leaf, and casting its skin, commences chrysalis, which is also of a very unusual shape, and is remarkable for the breadth or dilatation of the fore-part. From the chrysalis, in the space of three weeks, proceeds the insect in its complete state. Cttssida marghiata is more than double the size of the preceding, and is of a yellowish brown colour, with blue-green thorax. It is a native of India. Cassida lateralis is still larger, and brown with a brassy or metallic lustre, and has a large oval yellow spot on the middle of each wing-shell. It is a native of South- America. Cassida grossa is of a still superior size, being, perhaps, the largest of the genus, and is of a bright red colour, with the wing-shells thickly marked by small black spots on the middle part, and by strong, ramified, transverse black streaks on each side. It is a native of South-America. •6 COCCOO&JL l.,A . Jiead &c.7tiaamded v/ v/ jd punctata tuprina. p un ctati, rsima hipunctata u punctata 1 6 pujictata magnified 7 punctata .U isruiirfis sculp | -iSej.OctfiLoiii/t'ii.fiiM^/ifrfbv GJlears/et:S-'/eet Street, COCCINELLA. COCCINELLA. Generic Character. Antenna subclavatce, trun- c^tse. Palpi clava semicordata. Corpus hemisphsericum, ab- domine subtus piano. Antenna subclavated and truncated. Feelers with semi-cordated tip. Body hemispheric, with the abdomen flat beneath. T, HE beautiful genus Coecinella succeeds to that of Cassida, and is easily distinguished by its hemi- spheric form, having the upper parts convex, and the lower flat. The insects of this genus are known by the popular name of Lady-Birds, and one species in particular is endeared to every one's recollection by irresistibly recalling the ideas of the playful amusements of infancy: this is the common or seven-spotted Lady-Bird, Coecinella septempunctata of Linnaeus, which, in the advanced state of spring, and the middle of summer, makes its appearance in every field and garden. It pro- ceeds from a larva of a rather disagreeable appear- ance, of a lengthened oval shape, with a sharpened tail, of a black colour, varied with red and white specks, and of a rough surface: it resides on vari- ous plants, and changes to a short, blackish, oval chrysalis spotted with red, and which gives birth 56 C0CC1NELLA. to its beautiful inmate in the months of May and June. The Coccinellas are very numerous, and some kinds are known to intermix occasionally; thus causing a considerable difficulty in determining the real distinction of the species. They are gene- rally divided according to the ground-colour of the wing-sheaths, which are either red with black, yellow with black, black with red, or yellow with white spots. One of the most beautiful of the English species is the Coccinella octoclecim-pimctata of Linnasus, or the eighteen-spotted Lady-Bird, which is little more than half the size of the com- mon red kind, and is of a bright yellow colour, with numerous black specks, generally eighteen in number. The Coccinellas, both in their larva and com- plete state, feed chiefly on the small insects called Aphides. / / ClEKTS OMELA C.Fopuh, • Small British Chrysomeice Topul; I i ~ • - rf ../////// .•'iriti.e/i || Chrysoiwelo^ , N \v Frpidi ff- mmims M i/ri&U/w ^CH^i jS<,6,CcriLc,uicn,.FiillL>Iud- by &.Ke*,vkv.FUe£ Street. CHRYSOMELA. CHRYSOMELA. Generic Character. Antenna moniliformes ex- trorsum crassiores. Thorax marginatus. Corpus ovatum vel ob- longum, convexum. Antenna moniliform, thick- ening towards the tip. Thorax margined. Body ovate or convex. oblong, rp JL HE genus Chrysomela is extremely extensive, and some modern entomologists have subdivided it into several others. Many of the Chrysomelae are very nearly allied in point of habit or general appearance to the Coccinella3, and have accordingly by different authors been arranged in either genus. Of this kind is the beautiful insect called Chrysomela Popidi or the Poplar Chrysomela: it is about twice the size of the common or seven-spotted Coccinella, and is of a bright red colour, with the tips of the wing-shells black, and the thorax of a greenish or blueish black. It is found on the black and white poplars, willows, &c. and proceeds from a larva of nearly similar appearance to those of the genus Coccinella: it is of a pale yellowish green colour speckled with black, and edged with rows of small tubercles, those on the sides projecting in such a manner as to represent so many conical papilhe. 58 CHRYSOiMELA. Linnaeus observes that this larva diffuses, on hand- ling, a highly fetid, and even insupportable smell. In general, on touching the larva, a small drop of white fluid instantly appears from a pore on the tip of each of the lateral tubercles, and after some time, again disappears. It is this white fluid which diffuses the odour above-mentioned, and which is of so penetrating a nature, that* on hand- ling the animal, the smell will often remain on the fingers throughout the whole day. Even when recently hatched these larvas possess the power of discharging the fetid fluid. In the month of June the larva changes to a short brown chrysalis, so fastened as to hang by its extremity from the foot- stalk of a leaf or twig; and from this, in the space of a fortnight or less proceeds the complete Chrysomela. Chrysomela Asparagi is an insect of peculiar beauty: it is often seen feeding on the Asparagus, and is of an oblong or subcylindric shape, with red thorax, and yellow wing-shells marked by blackish-blue bands. Chrysomela Graminis is a common, but highly elegant insect, measuring about the fifth of an inch in length, and being of a most vivid but deep golden-green colour : the male, which is some- what smaller, is often tinged with copper-colour : this species is of an extremely convex shape. Chrysomela Betake is one of the richest of the genus, being entirely of the most brilliant and beautiful grass-green: it is found on Birch-trees. Chrysomela merdigera is of an oblong form, and i8 C HRYS OME 1. Jk Holeti Gig a j Trassi-i jiiarqinata 77ierdiaera ■Yuri nam eti.n.c qirjnnteiv Jiidica qibbosa l^fiK, OctriLcndvn.Tuiluhtd hv &Xear^Uf ,J?Ue0 Str&eC. CHRYSOMELA. 5Q of a red colour, with a somewhat cylindric thorax. It is a native of our own Island, and measures about a third of an inch in length. Chrysomda Boleti is a middle-sized species of a black colour, with three waved yellow bands across the wing-sheaths. It is an English insect, and is chiefly found on Boleti and other Fungi. Chrysomda Indka greatly resembles the former, but is of larger size, and is brown with two waved yellow bands across the wing-sheaths. It is found in India. Chrysomda Surinamensis is one of the larger insects of the genus, is of a deep blue colour, and of a smooth surface, with the antennae and feet brown. It is found in Surinam, and sometimes varies into copper-colour. Chrysomda Gigas (Fuessli Arch.) is a large species entirely of a fine blue colour. It is said to be a native of Surinam, and in point of habit or general appearance makes a near approach to a species of Tenebrio not uncommon in our own Island. Chrysomda gibbosa is a large species, of a pale orange-colour with numerous, small black spots, and a transverse band across the middle and tips of the wing-sheaths, which rise up into an almost conical convexity in the middle: the thorax is black. It is a native of South- America. Chrysomda gigantea, the largest of the genus, is black, with the wing-shells marked by very nu- merous orange-coloured spots, and is a native of India. HISPA. HISPA. Generic Character. Antenna; fusiformes, basi approximate, inter ocu- los sitae. Thorax elytraque saepius aculeata. Antenna spindle-shaped, approximated at the base, situated between the eyes. Thorax and wing-shells ge- nerally aculeated. A HE principal British species of this genus is a rather small insect, sometimes found near the roots of grasses: it is totally black; and has the wing-shells beset with six rows of spines, and the thorax with a few distant ones. It is considered as a rare insect, and its larva is unknown. w HISFA 3. air a not. size BlUT CHITS _S FlSl Sc s7w7itlv masjni/ied 7 • B. bzpunctatus Sc maoni/ied •^§C B. Battris M<*A*-r«¥- iStf0cf»f'L>r,iJi>u 7Ulirfed by GXearjl&FUetSina:. BRUCHUS. BRUCHUS. Generic Character. Antenna filiformes, sensim crassiores. Caput retractoinflexum. Thorax antice attenuatus. Elytra truncata, abdomine breviora. Aaicnnce filiform, gradually thickening. Head retracted a nd inflected . Thorax attenuated in front. Wing-Shells truncated, shorter than the abdomen. HE genus Bruchus consists, in general, of small insects. The Bruchus sranarius is found amona: beans, vetches, and other seeds, the lobes of which it devours. It is scarcely two lines in length, and is black, with the wing-shells freckled by white specks : the two fore-legs are reddish, and the an- tennae of similar colour at the base: the thighs of the hind-legs are armed with a tooth or process. The Bruchus seminarius is a rather smaller than the preceding species, which it considerably re- sembles, but has the hinder thighs plain, or with- out the denticle. The larvae of these species seem to have been not yet observed. The exotic species are chiefly natives of Ame- rica. Among these the Bruchus Bactris is one of the most remarkable, and is found in the nuts of the Palm of that name: it is of a grey colour, with the thighs of the hind-legs ovate. CURCULIO. WEEVIL. Generic Character. Antenna subclavatae, rostro insidentes. Rostrum corneum, promi- nens. Antennae subclavated, situ- ated on the snout. Snout horny, prominent. eJ/j HIS genus is extremely extensive. Among the largest of the exotic species may be numbered the Curculio Palmarum or Palm Weevil, which is entirely of a black colour, and measures more than two inches in length from the tip of the snout to the end of the body. Its larva, which is very large, white, and of an oval shape, resides in the tender- est part of the smaller palm-trees, and is con- sidered, when properly fried or broiled, as one of the greatest dainties in the West Indies. " The tree," says Madam Merian, " grows to the height of a man, and is cut off where it begins to be tender, is cooked like cauliflower, and tastes better than an artichoke. In the middle of these trees live innumerable quantities of worms, which, at first, are as small as a maggot in a nut, but after- wards grow to a very large size, and feed on the marrow of the tree. These worms are laid on the coals to roast, and are considered as a highly agreeable food." ?o ClTRCTLTLIO, CPahnarum h »^w««iilliliiiliii/# : '' P ■ ■ I ; ' Wmm ■ larva ffsa'J J a 0s .0*VLlona**.F«Mis1uA ':'' ' : K-^l'y^''" - : "^' Curcuma 22 C. ivucian Heirtli j-culp. l8o$,0ciZi Zondpi i. Pith fashed 'by frUearjler \Fhet Stretc WEEVIL. 63 The Curculio nucum or Nut Weevil is well de- serving of attention, and is the insect produced by the maggot residing in the hazel nut. Though every one is well acquainted with the maggot in the nut, yet the various changes through which it passes, the mode of its introduction into the nut, and its appearance in its complete or perfect state are what few that are not conversant in the history of insects have the least knowledge of. The in- sect makes its appearance early in the month of August, and may then be found creeping about hazel trees. The female insect, when ready to deposit her eggs, singles out a nut, which she pierces with her proboscis, and then, turning round, deposits an egg in the cavity. She then passes on, and singles out another nut, which she pierces in the same manner, placing an egg in it, and thus proceeds till she has deposited in different nuts her whole stock. The nut, not apparently injured by this slight perforation, continues to grow, and gradually ripens its kernel. When the egg is hatched, the young larva or maggot, find- ing its food ready prepared, begins to feast on the kernel. By the time that it has arrived at its full growth, and has nearly consumed the whole of the kernel, the natural fall of the nut takes place: the inclosed larva, not in the least injured by the fall, continues in the nut some time longer, and then creeps out at the hole in the side, which it has previously made, by gnawing in a circular direc- tion, and immediately begins to burrow or creep under the surface of the ground, till, having at- 64 WEEVIL. tained the depth sufficient for its convenient re- sidence during the long period of its winter con- cealment, it lies dormant for eight months, and then, casting its skin, commences a chrysalis, of the same general shape and appearance with the rest of the beetle tribe; and it is not till the be- ginning of August that it arrives at its complete or ultimate form, at which period it casts off the skin of the chrysalis, creeps to the surface, and commences an inhabitant of the upper world. During this state it breeds, and, like the major part of the insect race, enjoys, for a short time, the pleasures of a more enlarged existence. As a species it is distinguished by its brown colour, and the great length and slenderness of its curved snout: it measures nearly half an inch in length from the tip of the snout to that of the body. Dr. Darwin, in his elegant poem The Botanic Garden, thus beautifully expresses the egress of this insect from the cavity of the nut. " So sleeps in silence the Curculio, shut In the dark chambers of the cavern' d nut, Erodes with ivory beak the vaulted shell And quits on filmy wings it narrow cell." To this genus belongs the destructive insect peculiarly called the Weevil, which is the Curculio granarius of Linnaeus: its colour is an uniform dull chesnut or reddish brown, and its length scarcely two lines : the female insect perforates a grain of wheat, and in it deposits an egg, or two at most, (a grain of wheat being incapable of WEEVIL. 65 nourishing more than two of the young brood when hatched,) and this she does to five or six grains every day, for several days together: these eggs, not above the size of a grain of sand, in about seven days, produce a small white maggot or larva, which devours the substance of the grain in which it is lodged, and then changes into a chrysalis, from which, in about fourteen days, proceeds the complete insect. This is, perhaps, the insect mentioned by Virgil, among the animals injurious to corn. -populatque ingentan funis acerviun Curculio." Another species, which also makes its unwelcome appearance among corn, is the Curculio frumen- tarius. Its size is that of the granarius or Weevil, and its colour a bright red: it is an insect of great beauty, and is frequently seen during the autumnal season creeping about sunny walls, &c. Many of the exotic species are of very con- siderable size and possessed of great beauty of colour; but of all the insects of the genus Curculio, and even (in the opinion of some entomologists), of all known insects, the most brilliant and beautiful is the Curculio impcrialis or Imperial Curculio, commonly known by the name of the Diamond Beetle. It is a native of Brasil, and usually mea- sures about an inch in length: the ground-colour of the wing-sheaths is coal-black, but along each are distributed numerous parallel rows of sparkling concavities, of a round shape, and of a gold-green v. vi. p. 1. 5 66 WEEVIL. colour; but which, when properly magnified, ex- hibit the varying lustre of the most brilliant gems: this appearance is owing to innumerable minute scales, analogous to those on the wings of butterflies, and which, by their polished surface and different juxtaposition, produce the admired effect just men- tioned: they are of an oblong-oval shape, alike at both ends, and not dilated and notched at the tips as in the butterfly tribe. Every other part of the insect is also decorated with similar scales, but not in the form of spots ; and along the thorax they are disposed into parallel, broad, longitudinal bands. This species has been faithfully figured in the works of Drury, Olivier, &c. but it is utterly impossible for any figure of the natural size to convey any idea of more than the general appearance of the animal. The engraving annexed to the present description exhibits a magnified view of the insect, accompanied by one of the uatural size, as well as by several of the shining scales, very highly magnified, in order to shew their particular shape. Another species, not greatly inferior in beauty to the former, is the Ciwculio regalis, a native of New Holland, and which in its general shape and ground-colour, bears a near resemblance to the preceding, but is decorated with large, brilliant, gold-coloured patches, dispersed over the wing- shells, and which also owe their brilliancy to in- numerable golden scales, as in the C. imperialis. Nor is our own country destitute of a species of almost equal elegance, though far inferior in sizej CTLTTCCUXIO. o o V.vmperiaEs nab. size Sc magm/Uxl. iStS.OetTtZcnicn.I'ub&rlu-J b ^> /l'„,:rM /7," WEEVIL. 67 since the Curculio argentatus, a small insect of about a quarter of an inch in length, and of the most beautiful gold or silver-green colour, ex- hibits, when viewed with a microscope, a splendor of a similar nature, and produced by a covering of similar scales, shining with a metallic lustre. It is frequently seen during the summer months in fields and gardens. So very extensive is the genus Curculio, that Mr. Marsham, in his Entomologia Britatmica, enu- merates no fewer than 234 British species. ATTELABUS. ATTELABUS. Generic Character. Caput postice attenuatum. Antenna apicem versus crassiores. Head attenuated behind. Antenna thickening to- wards the tip. o 'F the genus Attelabus one of the principal species is the Attelabus Coryll of Linnaeus, which is a smallish insect, found chiefly on hazel trees, and is black, with red wing-sheaths ; and a variety sometimes occurs in which the thorax is red also: it usually measures about a quarter of an inch in length. A much smaller species is the Attelabus Betuhe, which is found on the Birch: it is entirely of a black colour, and is remarkable for gnawing the leaves of that tree, during the early part of spring, in such a manner that they appear notched on the edges. The thighs of the hind-legs in this insect are of a remarkably thickened form. The larvae of the Attelabi do not seem to have been distinctly described, but they probably bear a resemblance to those of the genus Curculio. Linnaeus refers to the genus Attelabus some insects which by later entomologists have been otherwise arranged: among these is the elegant species called Attelabus apiarius, so named from the mischief which its 23 .AT TIE X AST" § , /^ry*s ^4tt Cbryli 8c d,". magrufied Atf n pu/ ?•/ 1 /s '. ' Oct ' ifLondcn I'ttb/tWInut I". GKearjltyTUet I ATTELABUS. Qg larva occasionally commits among bee-hives, de- stroying the young of those insects. It is about three quarters of an inch in length, and of a beauti- ful violet-black, with red wing-shells, marked by three black transverse bands. The whole insect is also covered with fine short black hair. It is com- mon in some parts of France, Germany, &c. Its larva above-mentioned is of a bright red colour. i CERAMBYX. CERAMBYX. Generic Character. Antenna attenuate. Thorax spinosus aut gibbus. Elytra sublinearia. Corpus oblongum. Antenna slender and gra- dually attenuated. Thorax either spiny or bulging. Wing-Sheaths sublinear. Body oblong. H E genus Cerambyx is of vast extent, compre- hending many insects of the most extraordinary appearance, and of a size superior to any in the order Coleoptera except those of the genus Scara- baeus. Their larvae are chiefly found in decayed trees, and resemble those of the Beetle, but are of a more lengthened form. ' Among the most singular species may be num- bered the Cerambyx longimanus or long-limbed Cerambyx, measuring about three inches in length from head to tail : the wing-sheaths are beset with a very fine down, and are most elegantly varied with red, black, and yellow, in the form of stripes, disposed in various directions: the fore-legs are of excessive length, very strong, and of a black colour, with broad red bars: the antennas are long and black. This species is elegantly figured by f EH AMP K fTr.uTi C. danucorrvu ■ '■■■/ Land, n.l u&bi.rhe& ■ ■ ■ CERAMBYX. ^j Madam Merian in her celebrated work on the Insects of Surinam. The Cerambyx Gigas is a species which seems to have been first described in the work of Mr. Drury on exotic insects: it is, perhaps, the most gigantic of the whole genus, measuring between six and seven inches in length: the wing-shells are of a dark brown colour, and every other part of the insect black. The Cerambyx damicornis is one of the larger species, though very considerably inferior to the two preceding: it is of a dark chesnut-colour, with very long, curved jaws, spined or serrated on the inner side, as in those of the Stag-Beetle or Lucanus Cervus, to which this insect bears a considerable general resemblance. It is a native of many parts of America and the West-Indian islands, where its larva, like that of the Palm Cur- culio, is in great request as an article of food, being considered by the transatlantic epicures as one of the greatest delicacies in the Western World. We are informed by authors of the high- est respectability, that some people of fortune in the West-Indies keep Negroes for the sole pur- pose of going into the woods in quest of these admired larvae, and scooping them out of the trees in which they reside. Their general length is about three inches and a half, and their thickness that of the little finger. Dr. Browne, in his History of Jamaica, informs us that they are chiefly found in the Plumb and Silk-Cotton-Trees. They are commonly called by the name of Ma- 72 CERAMI5YX. ' caccos, or Macokkos. The mode of dressing them is first to open and wash them, and then carefully broil them over a charcoal fire. Cerumbyx cinnamnmeus is a somewhat smaller species, and is entirely of a pale ferruginous brown colour: the thorax is marked on each side by two spines, and the wing-shells are each tipped by a very small projecting point. It is a native of South-America. Among the European species of this very ex- tensive genus none are more remarkable than the Cerambyx moschatus, commonly called the musk goatchaffer, so named from its powerful scent, which however is far more agreeable than that of the substance from which it takes its name, resembling rather the combined scent of roses, musk, and ambergris. So diffusive is this agree- able odour, that, whenever the insect makes its appearance, which is commonly in the hottest part of July, it may be smelt to a considerable di- stance, and if taken and rolled up for some minutes in a handkerchief, will perfume it for the whole day. This insect, which is not very uncommon in many parts of our own country, measures about an inch and quarter in length, from the head to the end of the body: its colour is a fine dark green, with a slight gilded tinge on the upper parts, and sometimes it varies in having a strong cast of blue or purple : the antenna? are rather shorter than the body. It is chiefly found on willows and poplars, in the decayed wood of which its larva resides. It has been found that the 25 CUJLfcMiBYX, larva pup 6b C.a •cj'taruis JUsCiUfi , j-euip. - 0&tfi_ Lctufan,Fubti*>'}wd b\ r &. &*ar J lfy,Jile6C Street. CERAMBYX. 73 Cerambyx moschatus, when dried and reduced to powder, and made use of as a vesicatory, in the manner of the officinal Cantharides, produces a similar effect, and in as short a space of time *. Cerambyx coriarius of Linnaeus is also one of the larger European species, measuring near an inch and half in length, and is of a broadish shape, with thick, serrated antennae of moderate length: the thorax is armed on each side with three sharp spines or denticulations, and the whole insect is of a deep brown colour. It proceeds from a large yellowish white larva, with a chesnut-coloured head, which resides in the hollows of decaved trees, and changes into a chrysalis of similar colour. Cerambyx cediiis is one of the smaller or middle- sized species. It is a native of many parts of Europe, and is found in our own country, though not a very common insect. It is of a grey colour, with two or three obscure transverse brown bands, and the thorax is marked by four yellow spots: it is remarkable for the excessive length of its an- tennae, which, in the male especially, are five or six times that of the body. It is found in old de- cayed timber, and in the trunks of trees. * Drur. ins. 1. pref. p. ix. LEPTURA. LEPTURA. Generic Character Antenna setaceous. Elytra apicern versus at- tenuata. Thorax teretiusculus. Antenna setaceous. Wing-Sh eaths atte nu a t ed towards the tip. Thorax subcylindric. iHE genus Leptura, greatly allied to that of Cerambyx, contains several species of considerable beauty, among which may be reckoned the Lep- tura arcuata, of a black colour, with the wing- sheaths marked by transverse, yellow, lunated bands pointing backwards: it is found in woods during the summer months, and generally mea- sures about three quarters of an inch i*i length. Leptura arietis is of nearly similar appearance, but the second band of the wing-sheaths is di- rected forwards: both the above insects are by some referred to the genus Cerambyx. Leptura aquatica is so named from its being particularly found in the neighbourhood of waters, frequenting the plants which grow near the water's edge. It is about half an inch in length, and of a golden green colour, sometimes varying into cop- per-colour, purple, or blue, and is distinguished by having a tooth or process on the thighs of the hind-legs. XEJPTHTRAc 77icridumiV 26 aijuaiicoy eloTwata fcurciata- armata. amtis arcuatcL JuisUtta, verb a.tci. M.trl-lt'fitA*' ..1.<0. 3.S03 Oct:]fZcndcTLTuiii,fhcd^v G. Eutrflg' Fleet Street . LEPTURA. 75 Leptura meridiana is one of the larger European species, often measuring an inch in length, and is a very common insect during the decline of sum- mer in fields and woods, generally appearing in the hottest part of the day. It is of a dull brown colour above, sometimes yellowish-chesnut, and beneath is of a brilliant tawny yellow, shining with the lustre of satin. It has very much the general appearance of a Cerambyx, and might perhaps with equal propriety be referred to either genus. The larvae of the Lepturae in general are probably allied to those of the Cerambyces, but they are at present very little known. NECYDALIS. NECYDALIS. Generic Character. Antenna setaceae. Elytra&Ws minora, breviora, seu angustiora. Cauda simplex. Antenna setaceous. Wing - Sheaths smaller, shorter, or narrower than the wings. Tail simple. I N this genus the thorax is narrow and rounded, the body of a lengthened shape, and the wing- shells generally smaller than the wings. One of the most common species is the Necydalis minor, an insect seen in fields and about hedges in the summer months, and which has somewhat of the habit of a small Cerambyx, but the wing-sheaths are but half the length of the body, and are grey- brown, each marked at the tip with a linear white spot, the rest of the insect being black. Its length is rather more than a quarter of an inch. Necydalis ccerulea is a beautiful species. It is about half an inch in length, and entirely of a bright blue colour, sometimes greenish blue: the wing-shells are of the length of the body, but narrow, so as not to cover the sides of the wings; and the hind-thighs are very thick. It is found in woods during the summer months. °7 ^ECYBALlSo umbellataivwi r,i /■///, ,, alaiuzscais uitiivr ■ iSoj,Cct?zZc?id,/ Street. JLAMPYRiS 28 Ol'tZ 7toclituca ovitnv larva; :*C- .rtri,r memdrdlis Htttii ,.,„> Jifcj, Octfi Lpndcn 1'uNi.fhtJ "by f, KtarjUy, Fltef Street CICINDELA. 87 4 blackish purple colour, with the wing-sheaths each marked by an undulated whitish band and three white spots: it frequents woods and is far less common than the former. The larvae of the Cicindelse are of a lengthened shape, somewhat like those of the smaller Ceram- byces, and are furnished with strong, curved jaws: they inhabit tubular hollows, which they form near the surface of the ground, and prey on the smaller insects. BUPRESTIS. BUPRESTIS. Generic Character. Antenna setaceae, longi- tudine thoracis. Caput dimidium intra tho- racem retractum. Antenna setaceous, of the length of the thorax. Head half withdrawn be- neath the thorax. JL HE splendid genus Buprestis stands conspi- cuous among the coleopterous insects, on account of the superior brilliancy of its colours, which, in many of the larger exotic species in particular, shine with a metallic lustre. It is a very numer- ous genus, but by far the major part of the species are exotic. Among these the Buprestis gigantea is the largest hitherto discovered, measuring two inches and a half in length: the thorax is smooth, resembling the colour of polished bell-metal, and the wing-sheaths are of a gilded copper-colour, ■with a cast of blue-^green, and are wrinkled in a longitudinal direction with slight, prominent ra- mifications. It is a native of India, China, and many other parts of Asia, and is also found in South-America. The large size, metallic colours, and wrinkled surface of the wing-shells in this insect, have induced the Chinese to attempt imi- tations of it in bronze, in which they succeed BI7PI11BSTIS ccellaGz :f a -macula fa tmeiriomt h/rmorrh< idaHs giga/ifta *$&**^ C4»Jf larva icc t i}.Oct?i2eridc'n.Tubhshtui bv &J£ear.?/.y -•/'../.<'//-, •/ I BUPRESTIS. 8Q so well that the copy may be sometimes mistaken for the reality. This fine insect proceeds from a large white larva, much resembling that of the Lucamis Cervus or Great Stag-Chaffer,- and which feeds, according to Madam Merian, who has iismred it in her celebrated work on the Insects of Surinam, on the roots of plants of the Convolvulus tribe. The Buprestis sternicornis is considerably smaller than the former species, and of a thicker shape: it is of the most brilliant golden-green colour, marked with numerous impressed points, which are sometimes whitish: the thorax is still brighter, marked above by numerous impressed points, and stretched out beneath into a conical process. It is a native of India. The Buprestis Chrysis of Fabricius is so much allied to the sternicornis in shape and size, that it has by some been considered rather as a variety than truly distinct: it differs however materially in the colour of the wing-sheaths, which are of the richest reddish chesnut-brown, while the thorax, as in the former, is of a brilliant gold-colour, with a cast of green. It is a native of India. Buprestis vittata of Fabricius is a species of a more slender shape than the two immediately pre- ceding, and is of a bright gold-green colour, with a broad band of the most brilliant reddish gold- colour running down each of the wing-sheaths: this also is a native of India. The European insects of this genus fall far short of the Indian and American species both in gO BUPRESTIS. point of size and splendor, though among them may be numbered several elegant insects. One of the largest is the Buprestis rustica, mea- suring about half an inch or rather more, and of a coppery colour, with several longitudinal furrows along the wing-shells, the thorax being of a deep blue-green, with numerous impressed points : it is found in woods. Buprestis salicis of Fabricius is much smaller, but of brighter colours; the wing-sheaths being of a reddish gold-colour, inclining to green towards the sutures, and the thorax bright green, with two impressed blue spots: it 13 sometimes found on willows. - J0& ■^2. ^sytxfp^**-^ c^«-V^.~* ^w' ^t*^ ^»^ *?- ***-S*. V^<^f *-,£*.'&& // owhoreiJ v£ifcatV7'ms ProjcaraJbt&uo' ibrru. I 3 ro scarab mus rrub?. vousncf Zajrvtz/Tnaqmtied/ fffulh LScf.OctfiLorulow, rublLrlud' by G.Keanrley. Fleet Stresc: MELOE. 105 used as an embrocation on the parts affected : for this purpose also the oil expressed from the whole insect has been used with equal success. The female of this species deposits her eggs, which are very small, and of an orange colour, in a large heap or mass beneath the surface of the ground : each egg, when viewed by the microscope, ap- pears of a cylindric shape, with rounded ends: from these are hatched the Larvae, which, at their first appearance, scarcely measure a line in length, and are of an ochre-yellow, with black eyes: they are furnished with short antennae, six legs of mo- derate length, and a long, jointed, tapering body, terminated by two forking filaments or processes. These larvae are found to live by attaching themselves to other insects and absorbing their juices. They are sometimes seen strongly fasten- ed to common flies, &c. a practice so extraordinary as to have caused considerable doubt whether they could possibly have been the real larvae of the Meloe Proscarabaeus. The accurate observations of Degeer however have completely proved that they immediately fasten themselves to any insect, whether living or dead, that is placed near them. It is therefore probable that in their natural sub- terraneous state they attach themselves in a si- milar manner to the larvae of the larger beetles, worms, &c. &c. The Meloe scabrosus* extremely resembles the preceding, and is found in similar situations, but * Marsham Entom. Britann. 106 MELOE. differs in being of a reddish purple colour, with a cast of deep gilded green. Meloe vesica tonus, Blister-Fly, or Spanish-Fly, is an insect of great beauty, being entirely of the richest gilded grass-green, with black antenna?. Its shape is lengthened, and the abdomen, which is pointed, extends somewhat beyond the wing- sheaths: its usual length is about an inch. This ^ celebrated insect, the Cantharis of the Materia \£i%z*w±* - Medica, forms, as is well known, the safest and ■-^'-/^/'f^most efficacious epispastic or blister-plaister, rais- ing, after the space of a few hours, the cuticle, and causing a plentiful serous discharge from the skin. It is supposed however that the Cantharis of Dios- corides, or that used by the ancients for the same purpose, was a different species, viz. the Meloe Ciclwrei* of Linnaeus, an insect nearly equal in size to the M. Proscarabaaus, and of a black colour, with three transverse yellow bands on the wing-sheJls. The Meloe vesicatorius is principally found in the warmer parts of Europe, as Spain, the South of France, &c. It is also observed, though far less plentifully, in some parts of our own country. * See a dissertation on this subject in the sixth volume of the Amoenitates Academicae. The Chinese still use it instead of our Cantharides. 38 MOHBEXilLAc Ml ticuleata , trith antenna tc legs magnified ££s,irJ; tdc&CtXtlLortdctvPu&lLrked bv C KetWofcv, Fleet S awe. MORDELLA. MORDELLA. Generic Character Antenna filiformes serratae. Caput deflexum in territo. Palpi compresso - clavati , oblique truncati. Elytra deorsum curva api- cem versus. Lamina lata ante femora ad basin abdominis. ! Antenna filiform, serrated. Head bent down, when dis- turbed. Feelers compressed-clavate, obliquely truncated. i Wing -Sheaths curving downwards towards the tip. Lamina broad, before the thighs, at the base of the abdomen. , H E present genus consists of but few species, and those of small size. The most common of the British species is the Mordella aculeata', measuring two or three lines in length: it is en- tirely black, and of a smooth surface; the abdo- men is compressed, and terminates in a spine or sharp process extending beyond the wing-sheaths; the legs are rather long, and the insect, when disturbed, has the power of leaping or springing to a small distance. It is usually found on plants, in gardens, &c. It is observed to vary occasion- ally in colour, having the wing-sheaths sometimes marked by two transverse, cinereous, villose bars. This supposed variety is by some considered, and perhaps justly, as a distinct species. STAPHYLINUS. STAPHYLINUS Generic Character Antenna moniliformes. Elytra dimidiata. ALe tectae. Cauda simplex, exserens duas vesiculas oblon^as. Antenna moniliform. Wing-Sheaths halved. Wings covered. Tail simple, protruding oc- casionally two oblong vesicles. I N the genus Staphylinus, which is pretty numer- ous, the wings, which are rather large, are curi- ously pleated or convoluted beneath the short, abruptly terminated wing-sheaths. The larger species are of an unpleasing appearance, and generally run with considerable swiftness. • One of the most remarkable, as well as the largest of the British species, is the Staphylinus major of JDegeer, which is more than an inch long, entirely of a deep black colour, and when disturbed, sets up the hinder part of its body, as if in a posture of defence: it is very frequently seen, during the autumnal season, about sunny pathways, fields, and gardens, and is furnished with a large head, and very strong, forcipated jaws. This species has often been quoted as the Staphylinus maxillosus of Linnaeus, but it appears from late observations to be a larger, and totally distinct species from that insect. STAPHYTLimrs, head magnified 30 murmur m/i.viifasuj mq/^r Heath . /na/w i3cj. CctTi Zonckn-TuMsfaJ if C-&arrle\- J?Uet Street ■ STAPHYLINUS. 10() Staphylimts erythropterus is smaller than the preceding, and is readily distinguished by the colour of its wing-sheaths, which are of a dull brick-red: it is found about dunghills and in damp places. Staphylinus murium is rather smaller than the erythropterus, and is of a dull blackish colour, clouded with obscure, ash-coloured, villose bands and spots. The Staphylini are of a predacious nature, living on the smaller insects, worms, &c. Their larva? are subterraneous, and bear a considerable re- semblance to the complete animals. The British species, according to Mr. Marsham's Entomologia Britannica, amount to no fewer than eighty-seven. FORFICULA. EARWIG, Generic Character. Antenna setaceae. Elytra dimidiata. tectse, Cauda forcipata. Ah :C Antenna setaceous. Wins: - Sheaths halved . Wings covered- Tail forcipated. Ti HIS is not a numerous genus. The Forficula auricularia or. common Earwig is an insect so familiarly known that a formal description might seem unnecessary: its structure however is highly curious, and its natural history well worthy of particular observation: the wings of this insect are remarkably elegant, and are convoluted beneath their small sheaths in so curious a man- ner that they cannot be viewed without admira- tion: they are very large in proportion to the animal, transparent, and slightly iridescent. The earwig flies only by night, and it is not without great difficulty that it can be made to expand its wings by day: it is even probable that they would receive injury by any long exposure to the diurnal air; the animal therefore keeps them completely covered; and indeed so unusual a circumstance is it to see them expanded, that Sir Thomas Brown, in his Pseudodovia Epidemica, has thought it neces- TOKJFICTTLA. F. aziriadar-ui macfJiz/ied . 40 egghjhed by &£ear,fiey ' . INS E C TS. ORDER HEMIPTERA. BLATTA. COCKROACH. Generic Character. Caput inflexum. Antenna setacese. Ala planae, subcoriacese. Thorax planiusculus, orbi- culatus, marginatus. Pedes cursorii. Cornicula duo supra cau- dam. Head inflected. Antenna setaceous. Wings flat, subcoriaceous. Thorax flattish, orbicular, margined. Feet formed for Vunning. Hornlets two over the tail. HIS is a genus containing many very destruc- tive and disagreeable insects, and which form one of the principal inconveniences of the hotter climates. They devour various animal and vege- table substances, and some species are of a highly unpleasant smell, which is apt to remain on such v. vi. p. i. 8 114 COCKROACH. articles as they have passed over. The largest of the genus is the Blatta gigantea of Linnaeus, which is a native of many of the warmer parts of Asia, Africa, and South-America. It is this species in particular which seems to be intended in the following description of the ravages of this genus by an excellent observer who had contem- plated the animals in their native climes. " The Cockroaches* are a race of pestiferous beings, equally noisome and mischievous to na- tives or strangers, but particularly to collectors. These nasty and voracious insects fly out in the evenings and commit monstrous depredations: they plunder and erode all kinds of victuals, drest and undrest, and damage all sorts of cloathing, especially those which are touched with powder, pomatum, and similar substances ; every thing made of leather, books, paper, and various other articles, which if they do not destroy, at least they soil, as they frequently deposit a drop of their excrement where they settle, and some way or other by that means damage what they cannot devour. They fly into the flame of candles, and sometimes into the dishes; are very fond of ink and of oil, into which they are apt to fall and perish. In this case they soon turn most offen- sively putrid, so that a man might as well sit over the cadaverous body of a large animal as write with the ink in which they have died. They often fly into persons' faces or bosoms, and their legs * See the preface to the third volume of Dairy's Exotic Insects. COCKROACH. 115 being armed with sharp spines, the pricking ex- cites a sudden horror not easily described. In old houses they swarm by myriads, making every part filthy beyond description wherever they har- bour, which in the day-time is in dark corners, behind all sorts of cloaths, in trunks, boxes, and in short every place where they can lie concealed. In old timber and deal houses, when the family is retired at night to sleep, this insect, among other disagreeable properties, has the power of making a noise which very much resembles a pretty smart knocking with the knuckle upon the wainscotting. The Blatta gigantea of Linnaeus in the West Indies is therefore frequently known by the name of the Drummer. Three or four of these noisy creatures will sometimes be impelled to answer one another, and cause such a drum- ming noise that none but those who are very good sleepers can rest for them. • What is most dis- agreeable, those who have not gauze curtains are sometimes attacked by them in their sleep: the sick and dying have their extremities attacked, and the ends of the toes and fingers of the dead are frequently stripped both of the skin and flesh." This horrible insect seems to be at present unknown in the European world, though other species have been introduced by ships from the warmer regions, and are become nuisances in our habitations and warehouses: yet, from an observa- tion recorded by Mouffet it should seem that a specimen of the Blatta gigantea had by some ]"1'6 COCKROACH. means found its way long ago into our country, since it is hardly possible to apply the description to any other known kind*. " A viris fide dignis accepi Blattam mollem vulgari sextuplo majorem in summo templo Petropoli nostras captam fuisse, quae morsu non cutem tantum earn venantium vulnerabat, sed et sanguinem altius copiosiusque eliciebat; erat digiti majoris magnitudine longi- tudineque, atque loco muris septo inclusa, evasit tamen post triduum; sed qua ratione aut via nemo perspexit." The Blatta oriental is or common black Cock- roach, which is frequently called in our metropolis and elsewhere by the erroneous name of the black beetle, is supposed to have been first imported from the Eastern parts of the world, and seems to have made great progress of late years in extend- ing itself throughout the kingdom. The Blatta Americana or American Cockroach, which has long ago been elegantly figured by Madam Merian in her work on the insects of Surinam, is of a light chesnut-colour, and is ex- tremely common in the warmer parts of America and the West-Indian islands: it is somewhat larger than the black or eastern Cockroach. * " I have heard from persons of good credit that one of these Blattae was found and taken in the top of the roof of the church at Peterborough, which was six times larger than the common Blatta, and which not only pierced the skin of those who en- deavoured to seize it, but bit so deep as to draw blood in great quantity; it was a thumb's length and breadth in size, and being confined in a cavity of the wall, after two or three days made its escape, no one knew how." COCKROACH. 117 The Blatta heteroclita is an insect which is of a shorter and rounder shape than the rest of the genus: it is of a black colour, with white spots, and is distinguished by the remarkable circum- stance of having three spots on one wing-sheath, and four on the other: it is a native of India. The eggs in the genus Blatta are deposited in a kind of connate groupe, appearing at first view like a large single ovum. MANTIS. MANTIS. Generic Character. Caput nutans, maxillosum, palpis instructum. Antenna setaceae. Thorax linearis. Alee quatuor, membran- aceae, convoluta?; inferi- ores plicatae. Pedes antici compressi, subtus serrato-denticu- lati, armati ungue soli- tario et digito setaceo laterali articulato ; postici quatuor laeves, gressorii. Head unsteady, armed with jaws, and furnished with palpi or feelers. Antenna setaceous. Thorax linear. Wings four, membranaeer ous, convoluted ; the lower pair pleated. Fore-legs, in most species, compressed, serrated be- neath, and armed with a single claw and a setace- ous, lateral, jointed foot. Hind-legs smooth, formed for walking. HIS is one of the most singular genera in the whole class of Insects, and imagination itself can hardly conceive shapes more strange than those exhibited by some particular species. The chief European kind is the Mantis oratoria of Linnaeus, or Camel-Cricket, as it is often called. This insect, which is a stranger to the British isles, is found in most of the warmer parts of M. cratrn/i .r /nv.r. /an. 8c. Jpc^.Prfi 7.rniirn 2'nh/t.rhr/j H- O h'ttrrs/rr, t'/ssr Strut MANTIS. llQ Europe and is entirely of a beautiful green colour. It is nearly three inches in length, of a slender shape, and in its general sitting posture is observed to hold up the two fore-legs, slightly bent, as if in an attitude of prayer: for this reason the supersti- tion of the vulgar has conferred upon it the repu- tation of a sacred animal, and a popular notion has often prevailed, that a child or traveller having lost his way, would be safely directed by observ- ing the quarter to which the animal pointed when taken into the hand. In its real disposition it is very far from sanctity; preying with great ra- pacity on any of the smaller insects which fall in its way, and for which it lies in wait with anxious assiduity in the posture at first mentioned, seizing them with a sudden spring when within its reach, and devouring them. It is also of a very pugnaci- ous nature, and when kept with others of its own species in a state of captivity, will attack its neigh- bour with the utmost violence, till one or the other is destroyed in the contest. Roesel, who kept some of these insects, observes that in their mutual conflicts their manoeuvres very much resemble those of Huzzars fighting with sabres; and some- times one cleaves the other through at a single stroke, or severs the head from its body. During these engagements the wings are generally ex- panded, and when the battle is over the conqueror devours his antagonist. Among the Chinese this quarrelsome property in the genus Mantis is turned into a similar enter- 120 MANTIS. tainment with that afforded by fighting cocks and quails : (for it is to this insect or one closely allied to it that I imagine the following passage in Mr. Barrow's account of China to allude.) " They have even extended their enquiries after fighting animals into the insect tribe, and have discovered a species of Grylius or Locust that will attack each other with such ferocity as seldom to quit their hold without bringing away at the same time a limb of their antagonist. These little crea-^ tures are fed and kept apart in bamboo cages, and the custom of making them devour each other is so common that, during the summer months, scarcely a boy is to be seen without his cage of Grasshoppers." Barrow's Travels in China, p. 15Q. The Mantis precaria is a native of many parts of Africa, and is the supposed idol of the Hotten^ tots, which those superstitious people are reported to hold in the highest veneration, the person on whom the adored insect happens to light being considered as favoured by the distinction of a celestial visitant, and regarded ever after in the light of a saint. This species is of the same gene- ral size and shape with the M. oratoria, and is of a beautiful green colour, with the thorax ciliated ©r spined on each side, and the upper wings each marked in the middle by a semitransparent spot. Of all the Mantes perhaps the most singular in its appearance is the Mantis gongylodes of Linnaeus, which, from its thin limbs, and the gro- tesque form of its body, especially in its dried Mantis. 43 Wgorujyloideif JCGritH/Ju-- . ■■i-iJp. 180s CcfifZcnden FuiUj-ked l>i &.Eeanrley FUet Street . 44 Mantis. Jlealh j-cufy> M.strumaria cTarva }8c^,0ct r ]LrndcnJ'ublishtd iy 6 Kearjty,2?lut Street MANTIS. 121 state, seems to resemble the conjunction of several fragments of withered stalks, &c. This also is the case with the larvae of many of the genus, before the wings are formed. PHASMA. PHASMA. Generic Character. Caput grande. Antenna filiformes. Oculi parvi, rotundati. Stemmata tria inter oculos. Alte quatuor, membrana- cese ; superiores abbre- viate, iriferiores plicatae. Pedes ambulatorii. Head large. Antenna fili- form. JEj/es small, round- ed. Stemmata three, between the eyes. Wings four, membranace- ous; the upper pair abbre- viated ; the lower pleated. Feet formed for walking. PI IS, which is not, strictly speaking, a Linnaean genus, being formed from some of the Linnaean Mantes, differs from the genus Mantis in having all the legs equally formed for walking, or without the falciform joint which distinguishes the fore-legs in the genus Mantis. The antennae are setaceous, and the head large and broad: to these characters may be added the shortness of the upper wings or hemelytra, which scarcely cover more than about a third part of the body, while the lower wings are often very large and long. In their mode of life the Phasmata differ from the Mantes ; feeding entirely on vegetable food. In the extraordinary THASMA, 123 appearance of many of its species this genus is at least equal to the preceding. The most remarkable is the Phasma Glgas or Giant Phasma. (Mantis Gigas. Lin.) This in- sect measures six or eight inches in length, and is of a very lengthened shape both in thorax and abdomen, which are of a subcylindric form, the thorax being roughened on the edges and upper surface by numerous small spines or tubercles: the upper wings are small, green, and veined like the leaves of a plant, while the lower are very ample, reaching half the length of the body or farther, of a very pale transparent brown, elegantly varied and tesselated by darker spots and patches: the legs are of moderate length, with the joints roughened by spines. The larva and pupa of this species bear a more singular appearance than even the complete insect, greatly resembling, on a general view, a piece of dry stick with several small broken twigs adhering to it: for this reason it has been generally known in collections by the name of the Walking Stick, and under this title is figured in Edwards's Gleanings of Natural His- tory, and many other publications. It is however probable that though of a pale brown in its dry state, it is in reality green when living ; the natural colour fading after death, as in many others of this tribe. It is a native of the island of Amboina. <*~^ It may be added, that this insect either runs into ^^ several varieties as to size and some other parti- a. . y . culars, or that there exist in reality many distinct species, which have been confounded under one 124 rHASMA. common name. The ingenious Mr. Donovan, in his elegant publication entitled " An Epitome of the Insects of China," mentions a specimen nearly thirteen inches in length. In the Leverian Mu- seum exists a very capital specimen, which has been figured in the Naturalist's Miscellany; but the most exquisite representation yet given is in the incomparable work of Stoll. The Phasma dilcUatum is another extraordinary species, and seems to have been first described in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Linna?an Society by Mr. John Parkinson. It is preserved in the Leverian Museum. The descrip- tion given in the Linnaean Transactions runs as follows. " This singular animal, which appears to be a species hitherto undescribed, is at present in the Leverian Museum. It is supposed to be a native of Asia, and belongs to that tribe of insects which Stoll has called Spectres, and which constitute a distinct genus from that of Mantis. The present species measures six inches and a quarter from the upper part or top of the head to the extremity of the abdomen. The whole animal is of a flattened form, more especially on the abdomen, which mea- sures about an inch and half across in its broadest part: the thorax is of an obtusely rhomboidal form, the sides sloping each way from the flattish upper part, The whole thorax is not only edged with spines, but has also several very sharp ones distantly scattered over its surface. The head rises up backwards into an obtusely conic shape, Vh ASM A 46 .■■ j-.id/p. I*h . dilataturn iScj.Oclf? Lcndcn.Fufrluched It- GJietirskv./'/e" Strt'/ . Phasma. 4 6 o vmnh C3i moani/itd. Th .dilatation, V Bo A 0ct?:x" r Lcncb,wruilis7u-4 bv G-KiarshySL-ttyStnefr. J bo j PHASMA. 125 and has several very strong and large spines or processes. The abdomen is edged, almost through- out its whole length, with a continued series of small spines, to the number of five on the side of each individual segment: the extreme segments are without spines. The thighs or first joints of the lower pair of legs are in this insect remark- ably strong, of a somewhat triangular shape, and beset with some strong spines; but the tibiae or second joints are armed with far larger and stronger ones. The upper and middle pair of legs are of a nearly similar structure in propor- tion, but much less strongly spined. The colour of all the legs is green, tinged with brown; the spines blackish : the general colour of the thorax, abdomen, and head is now brown, bin; might probably have been green in the living animal. The wings are scarcely larger than the elytra or wing-sheaths, and seem originally to have been reddish, a tinge of that colour still pervading some parts of the wings: the tips are green: these wings are very strongly veined with brown fibres: the wing-cases are of a strong opake green, and were doubtless more vivid in the living insect: they have a great resemblance to a pair of leaves. The mouth has four palpi, which are rather long, and under the mouth are situated two leaf-shaped organs, perhaps belonging to the action of that part. The antennas are wanting, the first joints alone remaining. The abdomen is terminated by a kind of boat-shaped organ, the keel of which possesses a considerable space beneath the abdo- 126 , PHASMA. men, so that fewer segments appear on that part than above. The concavity of this organ is covered by a terminal scale and bifid process, constituting the. tip of the abdomen on the upper part. On raising this valve, an ovum, nearly of the size of a pea, but of a more lengthened form, was dis- covered lying in the cavity beneath; and on in- specting farther into the cavity of the abdomen, a great many more ova, exactly similar, were found, to the number of five or six-and-twentv, some still remaining in the upper part : these eggs are of a slightly oblong shape, but flattened at one end: they are of a brown colour, and marked all over with numerous impressed points; and have on one side a mark or double waved line, so disposed as to represent a kind of cross, as if carved on the surface: the flattened end is surrounded by a small rim or ledge, and seems to be the part which opens at the exclusion of the larva, since it readily sepa- rates from the rest. On immersing some of these ova in warm water, and opening them, the in- cluded yolk, of a deep yellow colour, and of the appearance of a transparent gum, was discovered; and this, when burned, afforded the usual smell of animal substances, but in some it was accompanied by a slight degree of fragrance. It is perhaps needless to observe that these mature ova clearly prove the insect to be in its complete or ultimate state, and not in that, of a larva." Some insects of this genus, like the preceding, are remarkable for the extreme, and even decep- tive resemblance which their upper wings bear to 47 PlJASIMA,, Tfm/A seu2p I'll, sicfi/bli/im . ifio/,,Pr/':i LoruU>n,FublijJu4. by &.KearjJey, Fleet Str-ett PHASMA. 127 the leaves of trees. This is evidently a provision of Nature for the security of the animal against the attacks of birds, &c. as well as for the more ready attainment of its prey; since when sitting among the branches of trees, &c. it eludes the notice both of the former and the latter. Of this kind is the Phasma siccifolium, (Mantis siccifolia. Lin.) the wings of which, when closed, so strongly resemble the appearance of a leaf, that the insect is fre- quently known in cabinets under the name of the walking leaf, as the larva of the Phasma Gigas is by that of the walking stick. The female of this species has no under wings. GRYLLUS. LOCUST. Generic Character. Caput inflexum, maxillo- sum, palpis instructum. Antenna plerisque setaceae seu filiformes. Alte quatuor, deflexab, con- volutse ; inferiores pli- catae. Pedes postici saltatorii : ungues ubique bini. Head inflected, armed with jaws, and furnished with feelers. Antenna, in most species, either filiform or setace- ous. Wings four, deflex, con- voluted : lower wings pleated. Hind-Legs formed for leap- ing: claws double on all the feet. I N the genus Gryllus the antennas are in most species setaceous, in others filiform, and in some flat and lanceolate : the head is large, bent down- wards, and furnished with strong jaws : the wings are four in number; the upper or exterior ones deflected, and longitudinally extended; and the lower or under ones pleated: the hind legs are formed for leaping, greatly exceed the rest in length, and are furnished with very strong, broad thighs. The major part at least, if not all of this genus feed entirely on vegetables, and from their num- 48 mas. /em . G. fni^?-attriuo\ JlAtiXUij- ificj.CrtUZoni&n.FuhErkedbiG.E'earslerJ'UetStreet. LOCUST. 12Q bers and voracity constitute one of the severest pests of the hotter regions of the globe, occasion- ally committing the most dreadful ravages, and converting the most fertile provinces into the ap- pearance of barren deserts. Among the most noxious species is the Gryllus migratorius of Linnaeus, or common migratory locust, which of all the insects capable of injuring mankind seems to possess the most dreadful powers of destruction. Legions of these animals are from time to time observed in various parts of the world, where the havoc they commit is almost incredible: whole provinces are in a manner desolated by them in the space of a few days, and the air is darkened by their numbers: nay even when dead they are still terrible; since the putrefaction aris- ing from their inconceivable number is such that it has been regarded as one of the probable causes of pestilence in the Eastern regions. This formid- able Locust is generally of a brownish colour, varied with pale red or flesh-colour, and the legs are frequently blueish. In the year 1748 it ap- peared in irregular flights in several parts of Eu- rope, as in Germany, France, and England; and in this capital itself and its neighbourhood great numbers were seen: they perished however in a short time, and were happily not productive of any material mischief, having been probably driven by some irregular wind out of their in- tended course, and weakened by the coolness of the climate. From a paper published in the l§th volume of v. vi. p. r. 9 1 30, LOCUST. the Philosophical Transactions we find that in the year 1693 some swarms of this species of Locust settled in some parts of Wales. Two vast flights were observed in the air not far from the town of Dol-galken in Merionethshire: the others fell in Pembrokeshire. From a letter published in the 38th volume of the same work it appears that some parts of Germany, particularly in the March of Brandenburgh, &c. suffered considerable injury from the depredations of these animals. They made their appearance in the spring of the year 1732, from flights which had deposited their eggs in the ground the preceding year. They attacked and devoured the young spike of the wheat, &c. and this chiefly by night, and thus laid waste many acres at a time beyond all hope of recovery. In the 46th volume of the same Transactions we find a description of the ravages of these animals in Walachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Hungary, and Poland in the years 1747 and 1748. " The first swarms entered into Transylvania in August 1747: these were succeeded by others, which were so surprisingly numerous, that when they reached the Red Tower, they were full four hours in their passage over that place; and they flew so close that they made a sort of noise in the air by the beating of their wings against one an- other. The width of the swarm was some hundreds of fathoms, and its height or density may be easily imagined to be more considerable, inasmuch as they hid the sun, and darkened the sky, even to that degree, when they flew low, that people could LOCUST. 131 not know one another at the distance of twenty paces: but, whereas they were to fly over a river that runs in the vallies of the Red Tower, and could find neither resting-place nor food; being at length tired with their flight, one part of them lighted on the unripe corn on this side of the Red Tower, such as millet, Turkish wheat, &c.; another pitched on a low wood, where, having miserably wasted the produce of the land, they continued their journey, as if a signal had actually been given for a march. The guards of the Red Tower attempted to stop their irruption into Transylvania by firing at them*; and, indeed, where the balls and shot swept through the swarm, they gave way and di- vided; but, having filled up their ranks in a mo- ment, they proceeded on their journey. In the month of September some troops of them were thrown to the ground by great rains and other inclemency of the weather, and thoroughly soaked with wet, they crept along in quest of holes in the earth, dung, and straw; where, being sheltered from the rains, they laid a vast number of eggs, which stuck together by a viscid juice, and were longer and smaller than what is commonly called an ant's eggf, very like grains of oats. The females, having laid their eggs, die, like the Silk- * In the Eastern parts of the world it is often found necessary for the Governors of particular provinces to command a certain number of the military to take the field against armies of Locusts with a train of artillery. f Which is not the real egg, but the chrysalis of the ant, en- veloped in its oval silken case, 132 LOCUST. worm; and we Transylvanians found by expend ence that the swarm which entered our fields by the Red Tower ', did not seem to intend remaining there, but were thrown to the ground by the force of the wind, and there laid their eggs; a vast number of which being turned up and crushed by the plough in the beginning of the ensuing spring, yielded a yellowish juice. In the spring of 1748 certain little blackish worms were seen lying in the fields and among the bushes, sticking together, and collected in clusters, not unlike the hillocks of moles or ants. As nobody knew what they were, so there was little or no notice taken of them, and in May they were covered by the shoot- ing of the corn sown in winter; but the sub- sequent June discovered what those worms were.; for then, as the corn sown in spring was pretty high, these creatures began to spread over the fields, and become destructive to the vegetables by their numbers. Then at length the country people, who had slighted the warning given them, began to repent of their negligence; for as these insects were now dispersed all over the fields, they could not be extirpated without injuring the corn. At that time they differed little or nothing from our common Grasshoppers, having their head, sides, and back of a dark colour, with a yellow belly, and the rest of a reddish hue. About the middle of June, according as they were hatched sooner or later, they were generally a finger's length, or somewhat longer, but their shape and colour still continued. Towards the end of June they cast off their outward covering, and then it plainly ap- LOCUST. 133 peared that they had wings, very like the wings of bees, but as yet unripe and unexpanded; and then their body was very tender, and of a yellowish green: then, in order to render themselves fit for flying, they gradually unfolded their wings with their hinder feet, as flies do, and as soon as any of them found themselves able to use their wings, they soared up, and by flying round the others, enticed them to join them; and thus, their num- bers encreasing daily, they took circular flights of twenty or thirty yards square, until they were joined by the rest ; and after miserably laying waste their native fields, they proceeded elsewhere in large troops. Wheresoever those troops hap- pened to pitch, they spared no sort of vegetable: they eat up the young corn, and the very grass; but nothing was more dismal than to behold the lands in which they were hatched; for they so greedily devoured every green thing thereon, be- fore they could fly, that they left the ground quite bare." " There is nothing to be feared in those places to which this plague did not reach before the au- tumn; for the Locusts have not strength to fly to any considerable distance but in the months of July, August, and the begining of September; and even then, in changing their places of resid- ence, they seem to tend to warmer climates." " Different methods are to be employed, ac- cording to the age and state of these insects; for some will be effectual as soon as they are hatched; Others when they begin to crawl* and others in ] 34 LOCUST. fine when they begin to fly; and experience has taught us here in Transylvania, that it would have been of great service to have diligently sought out the places where the females lodged; for no- thing was more easy than carefully to visit those places in March and April, and to destroy their eggs or little worms with sticks or briars; or if they were not to be beat out of the bushes, dung- hills, or heaps of straw, to set fire to them; and this method would have been very easy, conveni- ent, and successful, as it has been in other places; but in the summer, when they have marched out of their spring-quarters, and have invaded the corn- fields, &c. it is almost impossible to extirpate them without thoroughly threshing the whole piece of land that harbours them with sticks or flails; and thus crushing the locust with the produce of the land. Finally, when the corn is ripe or nearly so, we have found, to our great loss, that there is no other method of getting rid of them, or even of diminishing their numbers, but to surround the piece of ground with a multitude of people, who might fright them away with bells, brass vessels, and all other sorts of noise. But even this method will not succeed till the sun is pretty high, so as to dry the corn from the dew; for otherwise they will either stick to the stalks, or lie hid under the grass; but when they happen to be driven to a waste piece of ground, they are to be beat with sticks or briars; and if they gather together in heaps, straw or litter may be thrown over them and set on fire. Now this method seems rather LOCUST. 135 to lessen their numbers than totally destroy them j for many of them lurk under the grass or thick corn, and in the fissures of the ground from the sun's heat: wherefore it is requisite to repeat this operation several times, in order to diminish their numbers, and consequently the damage done by them. It will likewise be of use, where a large troop of them has pitched, to dig a long trench, of an ell width and depth, and place several persons along its edges, provided with brooms and such- like things, while another numerous set of people form a semicircle that takes in both ends of the trench, and encompasses the locusts, and, by mak- ing the noise above-mentioned, drive them into the trench, out of which if they attempt to escape, those on the edges are to sweep them back, and then crush them with their brooms and stakes, and bury them by throwing in the earth again. But when they have begun to fly, there should be horsemen upon the watch in the fields, who, upon any appearance of the swarm taking wing, should immediately alarm the neighbourhood by a certain signal, that they might come and fright them from their lands by all sorts of noise ; and if tired with flying, they happen to pitch on a waste piece of land, it will be very easy to kill them with sticks and brooms in the evening or early in the morn- ing, while they are wet with the dew; or anytime of the day in rainy weather, for then they are not able to fly. I have already taken notice that, if the weather be cold or wet in autumn, they gene- rally hide themselves in secret places, where they 136 LOCUST, lay their eggs, and then die: therefore great care should be taken at this time, when the ground is freed of its crop, -to destroy them before they lay their eggs. In this month of September, 1748, we received certain intelligence that several swarms of Locusts came out of Walachia into Transylvania through the usual inlets, and took possession of a tract of land in the neighbourhood of Clausberry, near three miles in length, where it was not possi- ble to save the millet and Turkish wheat from these devourers. I am of opinion that no instance of this kind will occur in our history, except what some old men remember, and what we have ex- perienced; at least there is no account that any Locusts came hither which did not die before they laid their eggs: however this is a known fact; that about forty years ago, some swarms came hither out of Walachia, and did vast damage wherever they settled, but either left this country before the end of summer, or died by the inclemency of the weather." As an appendix to the foregoing account it is added by a correspondent from Vienna, that " a considerable number of locusts had also come within twenty leagues of that city, and that one column of them had been seen there, which was about half an hour's journey in breadth; but of such a length that, after three hours, though they seemed to fly fast, one could not see the end of the column." < We have before observed, that the Locusts which fell in several parts of England, and in par- ticular in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, in. LOCUST. 137 the year 1748, were evidently some straggling detatchments from 'the vast flights which in that year visited many of the inland parts of the Eu- ropean Continent. The ravages of Locusts in various parts of the world, at different periods, are recorded by numer- ous authors, and a summary account of their prin- cipal devastations may be found in the works of Aldrovandus. Of these a few shall be selected as examples. Thus, in the year 5Q3 of the Christian era, after a great drought, these animals appear- ed in such vast legions as to cause a famine in many countries. In 677 Syria and Mesopotamia were overrun by them. In 852 immense swarms took their flight from the Eastern regions into the West, flying with such a sound that they might have been mistaken for birds: they destroyed all vegetables, not sparing even the bark of trees and the thatch of houses; and devouring the corn so rapidly as to destroy, on computation, an hundred and forty acres in a day: their daily marches or distances of flight were computed at twenty miles; and these were regulated by leaders or kings, who flew first, and settled on the spot which was to be visited at the same hour the next day by the whole, legion: these marches were always undertaken at sunrise. These Locusts were at length driven by the force of winds into the Belgic ocean, and being thrown back by the tide and left on the shores, caused a dreadful pestilence by their smell. In J 271 all the corn-fields of Milan were destroy* edj and in the year 1339 a ^ those of Lombardy. 138 LOCUST. In 1541 incredible hosts afflicted Poland, Wa- lachia, and all the adjoining territories, darkening the sun with their numbers and ravaging all the fruits of the earth. One of the largest species of Locust yet known is the Gryllus cristatus of Linnaeus, which is five or six times the size of the Gryllus migratorius, and, together with some others of the larger kind, is made use of in some parts of the world as an article of food : they are eaten both fresh and salted, in which last state they are publickly sold in the markets of some parts of the Levant. The quantity of edible substance which they afford is but small, especially in the male insects; but the females, on account of the ovaries, afford a more nutritious sustenance. It is well known that dif- ferent interpretations have been sometimes given of the passage in the sacred writings in which John the Baptist is said to have fed on Locusts and wild honey; and the word axprfa; has been supposed to mean the young shoots of vegetables rather than Locusts; but, since the fact is established, that these insects are still eaten by the inhabitants of the East, there seems not the least reason for ad- mitting any other interpretation than the usually received one. Why should we wonder that the abstemious prophet, during his state of solitary seclusion from the commerce of the world, should .support himself by a repast which is to be num- bered, not among the luxuries of life, but merely regarded as a substitute for food of a more agree- able nature? We may also adduce in support of Gnryi,iT T s 49 8! 4 fc ; f 8 .5 ^N a V 1 ■t u * \ \ i 1 1 M i \ 6 I i V s 3f- vj LOCUST. 13Q this idea, the testimony of Hasselquist, who thus expresses himself on this very subject. " They "who deny insects to have been the food of this holy man, urge, that this insect is an unaccustom- ary and unnatural food ; but they would soon be convinced of the contrary, if they would travel hither, to Egypt, Arabia, or Syria, and take a meal with the Arabs. Roasted locusts are at this time eaten by the Arabs, at the proper season, when they can procure them ; so that in all pro- bability this dish has been used in the time of St. John. Ancient customs are not here subject to many changes, and the victuals of St. John are not believed unnatural here; and I was assured by a judicious Greek priest, that their Church had never taken the word in any other sense ; and he even laughed at the idea of its being a bird or a plant." Hassdquisfs Travels, Engl. Transl. p. 4 19. The Gryllus cristatus above-mentioned is a highly beautiful animal; being of a bright red, with the body aimulated with black; and the legs varied with yellow: the upper wings tesselated with alternate variegations of dark and pale green; the lower with transverse, undulated streaks: the length of the animal from head to tail is about four inches, and the expanse of wings from tip to tip, when fully extended, hardly less than seven inches and a half. It is exquisitely figured in the works of Roesel. Greatly allied to the preceding is the Gryllus Dux, figured in the elegant work of Mr. Drury. 140 LOCUST. It is of the same size and general appearance, but has the-, body green; the upper wings brown, with the front-edge green; and the lower wings red, with numerous black spots disposed in such a manner as to form transverse streaks. It is a native of South-America and the West-Indian islands. The Gryllus viridisshnus of Linnaeus is one of the largest European species, and is often seen during the decline of summer in our own country. It is wholly of a pale grass-green, with a slight blueish cast on the head and under part of the thorax, which is marked above by a longitudinal reddish-brown line: the length of the insect, from the mouth to the tips of the wings is about two inches and a half: the female is distinguished by a long sword-shaped process at the end of the body, being the instrument with which she pierces the ground in order to deposit her eggs: it consists of a pair of valves, through the whole length of which the eggs are protruded: they are of an oblong form, and of a pale brown colour. The Gryllus verruciform is also found in some parts of England, and is of an equal size with the viridissimus, but of a reddish-brown colour, with darker variegations : this animal, according to Linnaeus, is frequently applied by the people in Sweden to warts on the hands, which it is suffered to bite, off, and is said thus to prevent their return. But of all the British insects of this genus the Gryllus Gryllolalpa or Mole-Cricket is by far the most .curious; and in its colour and manners dif- GfUfLLTTS AVjM scuty) &.&r\>ttota2pa/. iSc $,Oct ■ • "If ft . fin vr. LOCUST. J4 1 fbrs greatly from the rest. It is of an uncouth, and even formidable aspect, measuring more than two inches in length; and is of a broad and slightly flattened shape, of a. dusky brown colour, with a ferruginous cast on the under parts, and is readily distinguished by the extraordinary struc- ture of its fore-legs, which are excessively strong, and furnished with very broad feet divided into several sharp, claw-shaped segments, with which it is enabled to burrow under ground in the manner of a Mole: the lower wings, which, when ex- panded, are very large, are, in their usual state, so complicated under the very short and small upper-wings or sheaths, that their ends alone ap- pear, reaching, in a sharpened form, along the middle of the back; the abdomen is terminated by a pair of sharp-pointed, lengthened, hairy pro- cesses, nearly equalling the length of the antennsfe in front, and contributing to give this animal an appearance in some degree similar to that of a Blatta. The Mole-Cricket emerges from its subterrane- ous retreats only by night, when it creeps about the surface, and occasionally employs its wings in flight. It prepares for its eggs an oval nest, mea- suring about two inches in its longest diameter: this nest is' situated a hand's breadth below the surface of the ground: it is accurately smoothed within, and is furnished with an obliquely curved passage leading to the surface. The eggs are about two hundred and fifty or three hundred in number, nearly round, of a deep brownish yellow 142 LOCUST. colour, and of the size of common shot: on the approach of winter, or any great change of weather, these insects are said to remove the nest, by sinking it deeper*, so as to secure it from the power of frost, and when the spring commences, again raising it in proportion to the warmth of the season, till at length it is brought so near the surface as to receive the full influence of the air and sunshine: but should unfavourable weather again take place, they again sink the precious deposit, and thus preserve it from danger. The eggs are usually deposited in the month of June or July, and the young are hatched in Au- gust. At their first exclusion they are about the size of ants, for which, on a cursory view, they might be mistaken; but on a close inspection are easily known by their broad feet, &c. In about the space of a month they are grown to the length of more than a quarter of an inch; in two months upwards of three quarters; and in three months to the length of more than an inch. Of this length they are Visually seen during the close of autumn, after which they retire deep beneath the surface; not appearing again till the ensuing spring. Dur- ing their growth they cast their skin three or four times. The Mole-Cricket lives entirely on vegetables, * This is affirmed by Goedart, but is disbelieved by Reaumur and Roeselj and it appears from experiment that the nest always requires to be kept in a moist situation j the eggs, if exposed to a dry air, being entirely shrivelled and destroyed. a ■ KV L I , i ' -S SJ & . Moristrosus . Jftrrirfith seidp 180J, i\t' i Zcnd0n,J*ul}l£fh&Zbv oA't-t?i\r& S?&i ■' . rocusT. 143 devouring the young roots of grasses, corn, and various esculent plants, and commits great de- vastation in gardens. It is found in most parts of Europe, and in the northern parts of Asia and America. In South-America is found a species of a still more uncouth appearance than the Gryllotalpa, being of a larger size, with the wings running out into a pair of long, narrow convolutions, reaching far beyond the body; while all the legs are longer than is usual in this genus, and have the feet fur- nished on each side with several oval, foliaceous processes: the whole animal is of a brown colour, with a large head, and very strong jaws. It would be unnecessary to add, that the small insects commonly termed Grasshoppers belong to this genus. FULGORA. LANTERN-FLY. Generic Character. Caputfronte producta,inani. Antenna infra oculos, ar- ticulis duobus; exteriore globoso majore. Rostrum inflexum. Pedes gressorii. Head produced into an in- flated hollow front. Antennce beneath the eyes, of two joints, the exterior larger and globose. Sixout inflected, Feet formed for walking. HIS highly singular genus is distinguished by having the Antennae formed by two very short joints, the exterior of which is globular, and tip- ped by a short hair: they are seated immediately beneath the eyes : the snout is strait, and inflected beneath the breast, and the feet are formed for walking. The Fulgora Lanternaria or Peruvian Lantern- Fly is undoubtedly one of the most curious of in- sects: it is of a very considerable size, measuring nearly three inches and a half from the tip of the front to that of the tail, and about five inches and. a half from wing's end to wing's end when ex- panded: the body is of a lengthened oval shape, roundish or subcylindric, and divided into several rings or segments : the head is nearly equal to the length of the rest of the animal, and is oval, inflated, Pl^GOHA. F. JLiin/r/ v//// ■/// AV«*rt. J-, -u/p z$0£.Oct r iXe?ulct\,l 7 ubti,thtd by f}JL?ar, larva/ M.6ri/7i{h, sa/ty i3o5. Octf i £ondorv, Fu&lirhed by G./&arjl&K Fke£ Street. NOTONECTA. KOTONECTA. Generic Character. Rostrum inflexum. AntemKB thorace breviores. Ala quatuor,cruciato-com- plicatae. Pedes posteriores pilosi, na- tatorii. Snout inflected. Antenna shorter than tho- rax. Wings coriaceous on the upper part, and crossed over each other. Hind-Feet edged with hairs, and formed for swimming. IrUi, principal species of this genus is the No- tonecta glauca, a very common aquatic insect, in- habiting stagnant waters, and generally measur- ing about three parts of an inch in length. Its colour is grey-brown, and the upper wings are marked along the edges by a row of minute black specks. This insect is usually seen swimming on its back, in which situation it bears a most striking resemblance to a boat in miniature, the hind-legs acting like a pair of oars, and impelling the animal at intervals through the water. It preys on the smaller inhabitants of the water, and flies only by night. Notonecta striata is much smaller than the pre- ceding, not measuring more than a quarter of an inch in length, and is of a yellowish grey colour, 156 NOTONECTA. with numerous transverse undulated black lines or streaks: it is found in stagnant waters. Notonecta minutissima is an extremely small species, with grey wings, marked by longitudinal dusky spots: like the two former, it is an inhabit- ant of stagnant waters, but is far less frequently observed than the rest, on account of its very small size. >• UJ3PA< tjrajidLs- 3e*itk, scuilp. cwieTv,Fu£lL-fi*d/ bj> &Kf I immersed in a glass of water the footstalk of a v. vi. p. 1. 12 178 APHIS. leaf of considerable length, taken from a stove plant beset with Aphides of a dark lead-colour, which were feeding on it in great numbers. On immersion they did not quit the stalk, but imme- diately their bodies assumed a kind of luminous appearance from the minute bubbles of air which issued from them. They were put under water at a quarter past six in the evening, and taken out at a quarter past ten the next morning, having continued immersed sixteen hours. On placing them in the sunshine some of them almost im- mediately shewed signs of life, and three out of four at least survived the immersion. One of the survivors, a male, very soon became winged, and another, a female, was delivered of a young one. Many years before this experiment, with a view to destroy the Aphides, which infested a plant in my green-house, I immersed one evening the whole plant, together with the pot in which it grew, in a tub of water. In the morning I took out the plant, expecting, with certainty to find every Aphis dead ; but to my great surprize they soon appeared alive and well: and thus in addi- tion to the other extraordinary phenomena attend- ant on these insects, we find that they are capable of resisting the effects of immersion in water for a great length. When taken from the plant on which they feed and kept under water, they do not survive so long; their struggling in that case perhaps exhausts them sooner. This part of the subject might perhaps be pushed much farther: it is sufficient for our purpose to have shewn that . . ■ • aphis. 179 wet is not so hurtful to them as is generally ima- gined." " Though no mode of destroying Aphides will perhaps ever be devised on a large scale in the open air by artificial means, we can accomplish it most effectually when they infest plants in green- houses and frames, or in any situation in which we can envelop them for a certain time in clouds of smoke. Powders or liquids, however fatal to Aphides, must ever be ineffectual, from the trouble and difficulty of applying them so that they shall come in contact with those insects, situated as they usually are; but in this respect smoke has every advantage; it penetrates and pervades their inmost recesses. The smoke of common veget- ables, however powerful, is found to be inadequate to their destruction, and hitherto no other than that of Tobacco is found to be effectual. That, judiciously applied, completely answers the pur- pose, without injuring the plant. It mostly hap- pens, in well managed houses, that a few plants only are infested with Aphides; in such a case the smoking of the whole house is a business of unnecessary expence and trouble; and we would recommend it to persons who have large collec- tions to make use of a box of a commodious form that shall hold about a dozen plants of various sizes, to he used as a sort of hospital, in which the infested plants may be smoaked separately, and the insects more effectually destroyed, because it may be rendered more perfectly smoke-tight." " To prevent the calamities which would in- fallibly result from the accumulated multiplication J 80 APHIS. of the more prolific animals, it has been ordained by the Author of Nature that such should be di- minished by serving as food for others. On this principle we find that most animals in this pre- dicament have one or more natural enemies. The helpless Aphis, the scourge of the vegetable kingdom, has to contend with many. The prin- cipal are the Coccinella, the Ichneumon Aphidum, and the Musca aphidivora. Such as are un- acquainted with the history of insects will learn with surprise that the Coccinella, a common in- sect, well known even to children by the name of the Lady-Bird, is one of the greatest destroyers of the Aphides, which indeed are its only food, its sole support, as well in its perfect as in its larva or grub state. During the severity of winter this insect secures itself under the bark of trees or elsewhere. When the warmth of spring has ex- panded the foliage of plants, the female deposits its eggs on them in great numbers, from whence in a short time proceeds the larva, a small grub, of a dark lead-colour spotted with orange: these may be observed in the summer season running pretty briskly over all kinds of plants; and if narrowly watched, they will be found to devour the Aphides wherever they find them. The same may be observed of the Lady-Bird in its perfect state. As these insects in both their states are very numerous, they contribute powerfully to di- minish the number of Aphides. Another most formidable enemy to the Aphis is a very minute black and slender Ichneumon fly, which eats its way out of the Aphis, leaving the dry inflated skin APHIS. 1 81 of the insect adhering to the leaf like a small pearl. Such may always be found where Aphides are in plenty. We have observed different species of Aphides to be infested with different Ichneumons. In general the torpid Aphis submits quietly to this fatal operation; but we have observed some of them, especially one that feeds on the Sycamore, which is much more agile than many of this race, endeavouring to avoid the Ichneumon with great address. There is perhaps no genus of insects which in their larva or maggot state feed on such a variety of food as the Musca or Fly. There is scarcely a part of Nature, either animate or in- animate, in which they are not be met with. One division of them, called by Linnaeus Muscat aphi- divorce, feeds entirely on Aphides. Of the different species of aphidivorous flies, which are numerous, having mostly bodies variegated with transverse stripes, their females may be seen hovering over plants infested with Aphides, among which they deposit their eggs on the surface of the leaf. The larva or maggot produced from such eggs feeds, as soon as hatched, on the younger kinds of Aphis, and as it increases in size, attacks and devours those which are larger. These larvae are usually of a pale colour, adhere closely to the leaf, along which they slowly glide, and are formed very tapering towards the head. When fully grown they change to a pupa or chrysalis attached to the leaf, from whence issues the fly. The larvae of these flies contribute their full share to diminish the despoilers of Flora. To these three kinds of 182 APHIS. insects, which are the chief agents in the hands of Nature for keeping the Aphides within their pro- per limits, we may add a few others, which act a subordinate part in this necessary business of de- struction. The larva of the Hemerobius feeds on them in the same manner as that of the Musca aphi- divora, and deposits its eggs also on the leaves of such plants as are beset with Aphides. The eggs of this Hemerobius stand on long filaments, which are attached by a base to the leaf, and have more the appearance of filaments of flowers with their antherae than the eggs of an animal. The number of these insects being comparatively small, they may be considered rather as the casual invaders of their existence than the main host of their de- stroyers. The Earwig, which is itself no con- temptible enemy to plants, makes some atonement for its depredations by destroying the Aphides, especially such as reside in the curled-up leaves of fruit-trees, and the purses formed by certain Aphides on the poplars and other trees. Lastly, we may add as the enemies of these creatures, some of the smaller soft-billed birds, which gene- rally feed on insects, and which may be frequently seen busily employed in picking them from the plants." " When plants assume a sickly appearance, or are disguised by disease, from whatever cause the disease may arise, they are said to be blighted. Blights originate from a variety of causes, the chief of which are unfortunate weather, and in- sects. Two opinions prevail very generally in APHIS. 183 regard to blights: the one that the insects which cause them are brought from a distance by easterly winds; the other that they attach themselves to none but plants already sickly. Neither of these opinions, as far as I have observed, is founded in fact. I am induced from the numerous observa- tions I have made on insects for a series of years, (in pursuing the cultivation of plants) to consider the Aphis as by far the most general cause of the diseases distinguished by the name of Blights. Other insects it is true, more especially the larvaa of some of the Lepidoptera, as those of the Pha- Icence tortrices, disfigure and do infinite mischief to plants by rolling and curling up the leaves; but these for the most part confine themselves to certain trees and plants. Their ravages are also of shorter duration, being confined to the growth of one brood, and they are also less fatal. It w r ould be no difficult matter for me to fill a volume with observations to which I have been an eye- witness of the injuries which plants sustain from insects; but that would be foreign to my present purpose, which is to shew that the Aphis is the grand cause of these diseases, and to place the modus operandi or manner in which they effect this business in its true light." " We are fully aware that certain gregarious insects may at particular times rise up in the air, and if small and light, be impelled by any wind that may chance to blow at the time; and on this principle we account for that shower of Aphides described by Mr. White to have fallen at Sel borne. J 84 APHIS. But certainly this is not the mode in which those insects are usually dispersed over a country. The phenomenon is too unusual, the distribution would be too partial ; for the Aphides, while at their highest point of multiplication, do not swarm like bees or ants, and fly off in large bodies; but each male or female Aphis, at such periods as they arrive at maturity, marches or flies off, with- out waiting for any other. Yet it may happen, that from a tree or plant thickly beset with them numbers may fly off, or emigrate together, being arrived at maturity at the same moment of time. Detaching itself from the plant, each pursues a different route, intent on the great business of multiplying its species; and settles on such plants in the vicinity as are calculated to afford nourish- ment to its young. The common green Aphis, which is so generally destructive, lives during the winter season on such herbaceous plants as it remained on during the autumn, either in its egg or perfect state. If the weather be mild, it multiplies greatly on such herbage; as the spring advances, in May the males and females of these insects acquire wings; and thus the business of increase, hitherto confined, is widely and rapidly extended, as the winged Aphides, by Hop-Planters called the Fly, may be seen at this period very generally sitting on plants, and floating in the air in all directions." Mr. Curtis, in the preceding observations on the genus Aphis, having mentioned the shower of Aphides recorded by Mr. White, it cannot but be agreeable to the reader to be made acquainted APHIS. J 85 with so curious a phenomenon in the words of its describer. " As we have remarked above that insects are often conveyed from one country to another in a very unaccountable manner, I shall here mention an emigration of small Aphides, which was ob- served in the village of Selborne no longer ago than August the first 1785. At about three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was very hot, the people of this village were surprised by a shower of Aphides or smother-flies, which fell in these parts. Those that were walking in the streets at that juncture found themselves covered with these insects, which settled also on the hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables where they alighted. My annuals were discoloured with them, and the stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over for six days after. These armies were then no doubt in a state of emigration, and shift- ing their quarters; and might have come, as far as we know, from the great hop-plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that day in the easterly quarter. They were observed at the same time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the vale from Farnham to Alton." 8? giijjf CHERMES. CHERMES. Generic Character. Rostrum pectorale. Antenna tborace longjiores. Ala quatuor, deflexse. Thorax gibbus. Pedes saltatorii. Snout pectoral. Antenna longer than thorax. Wings four, deflex. Thorax gibbose. Feet formed for walking:. HE insects of the genus Chermes, like those of the genus Aphis, are found on the leaves, young shoots, and bark of various vegetables: they are, in general, of small size, and in their larva state are of a much more flattened form than when farther advanced, and exhibit merely the rudi- ments of the future wings: in this state also many of them appear coated, especially on the hind part of the body, with a floeculent or filamentous sub- stance, of a white colour, and of a clammy or tenacious nature, which exsudes from the pores of the animal, and is gradually protruded into the form above-mentioned. Chermis Alni is found on the leaves and shoots of the Alder. Its larva is entirely covered, about the hinder part, by thickly fasciculated heaps of viscid down or cotton, which, if purposely rubbed off, are quickly reproduced by the animal, which CWERMilS. 5$ Pyri ItZ/^'O, unde. •j~ vietr Bu-xz macrnzfiAcl 0ct?2,£/mdon.2^lLrh&ldy&2&a\.ftei>,FZ CHERMES. 1 87 secretes the white fibres from large pores placed in a circle at some distance from the vent. These larvae are gregarious, often appearing in such numbers on the shoots of the tree that the whole shoot appears covered with white cotton, which, if touched by the finger, separates into distinct tufts from the animals' being suddenly disturbed and moving in all directions. When this cotton is brushed off, the larva appears of a pale green colour, varied with black spots, which on the upper part of the abdomen are disposed in two longitudinal rows: the tip of the abdomen is also black. When arrived at its complete or perfect state by casting its pupa skin, it is entirely green, with transparent wings veined with green and slightly shaded with brown. If disturbed, it leaps with much agility, frequently flying at the. same time. Chermes Pyri is nearly of similar size with the former, and is found on the leaves of the common pear-tree: its colour is a greenish brown, varied with deeper streaks, and the wings are nearly trans- parent, spotted with brown: the larva of this species is of a greenish brown, with darker spots, and is nearly naked, or destitute of the cottony secre- tion so remarkable on that of the preceding, but is beset with short whitish hairs towards the hinder part of the body. Chermes Buxi is a beautiful little insect, of a bright grass-green colour, with the wings of a similar cast. Its larva resides on the young shoots 188 CHERMES. of box, in the early part of spring, and secretes a considerable quantity of whitish, viscid, and short filaments from the hind part, but not so as to envelop the body, which has generally more or less of a powdery appearance. coccus, coccus. Generic Character. Rostrum pectorale. Abdomen postice setosum. Aire duse erectse masculis. Feminse aptera?. Snout pectoral. Abdomen bristled behind. Wings two upright in the males. Females wingless. I N this remarkable genus the males are much smaller than the females, and of a widely different appearance, being furnished with wings, of which the females are altogether destitute. The Cocci are found on the leaves and bark of various vegetables: hence they become injurious to many exotics in our stoves and green-houses. Of these the Coccus Adonidum of Linnaeus is the most common: the female, which, when nearly full grown, measures somewhat more than a fifth of an inch in length, has somewhat the appearance of a small millepede or Oniscus, being of an oval shape, slightly convex above, with the body divided into many transverse segments projecting sharply on the sides, and fur- nished with small processes or points; which are longer on the two hindmost divisions of the body than on the rest, so as to give the appearance of a bifid tail. The whole insect is of a pale rose-colour, and appears more or less covered with a fine white 190 coccus. meal or powder: the legs are short and six in num- ber. This insect continues to wander about the plant it infests, nourishing itself by sucking the juices. The male is very small, rose-coloured, somewhat mealy, with semitransparent milk-white wings, and four long filaments at the tail. When the female is full-grown, and pregnant with eggs, she ceases to feed, and remaining fixed to one spot, envelops herself in a fine white fibrous cotton-like substance, and lives but a very short time afterwards. The young, which hatch under the husk or body of the parent insect, proceeding from it in great numbers, and dispersing them- selves in quest of food. This species is a native of the warmer parts of Africa and America, from whence it has long since been introduced, among exotics, into Europe. Coccus' Hesperidum is equally common in green- houses with the former: the female of this species is a small, brown, oval inject, about the sixth of an inch in length, of a slightly convex, smooth surface, and furnished with six short legs. When full grown it does not envelop itself in any fjoccu- lent matter like the former, but remains firmly fixed on the bark, under the form of an oval convex shell or husk, of a polished brown colour. In this state it dies, giving birth to a numerous race of young, hatched from the included eggs, as in the former species. The male is a very small two- winged fly. This species of Coccus, like the former, has been introduced into the European regions from the warmer parts of the globe. Coccxrg. fie CJIhrperidum. var. ♦ k remale nurtt 77 at. si zs Sc mqg/u/ied '. Cpenruvrum Sztltzer not. size h magnified .1/ {->,///// s.Wp *#€>3.0ce r 2Z l ',FtetcStreer. 6i Coccus. 1.2 . male/ of 0. Gzoti> nad. stz>&. 2.3 .. female of d/°. 4.5 mafe mag/Jiifiscl . 6 .1 ■ female aV: .if.OfUH^Uc J-Ciu2f>. ifoJ,0ctfjZand07V,2'jU>i£rhe*£> by £.K&rf&y.FU*?StrMt?. coccus. lgi But of all the Insects of this genus by far the most important is the Coccus Cacti or Cochineel Coccus, so celebrated for the beauty of the colour which it yields when properly prepared. This species is a native of South- America, and is pecu- liarly cultivated in the country of Mexico, where it feeds on the plants called Cactus cochenillifer, and Cactus Opuntia. The female or officinal Cochineel insect, in its full-grown pregnant or torpid state, swells or grows to such a size, in proportion to that of its first or creeping state, that the legs, antennae, and proboscis are so small with respect to the rest of the animal as hardly to be discovered except by a good eye, or by the assistance of a glass; so that on a general view it bears as great a resemblance to a seed or berry as to an animal. This was the cause of that differ- ence in opinion which long subsisted between seve- ral authors ; some maintaining that Cochineel was a berry ; while others contended that it was an in- sect. We must also here advert to another error; viz. that the Cochineel was a species of Coccinella or Lady-Bird. This seems to have taken its rise from specimens of the Coccinella Cacti of Linnaeus being sometimes accidentally intermixed with the Cochineel in gathering and drying. When the female Cochineel-Insect is arrived at its full size, it fixes itself to the surface of the leaf, and envelops itself in a white cottony matter, which it is supposed to spin or draw through its proboscis in a continued double filament, it being observed that two filaments are frequently seen 1Q2 COCCUS. proceeding from the tip of the proboscis in the full-grown insect. The Male is a small and rather slender dipterous fly, about the size of a flea, with jointed antennae and large white wings in proportion to the body, which is of a red colour, with two long filaments proceeding from the tail. It is an active and lively animal, and is dispersed in small numbers among the females, in the proportion, according to Mr. Ellis, in the Philosophical Transactions, of about one male to a hundred and fifty, or even two hundred females. When the female insect has discharged all its eggs, it becomes a mere husk, and dies; so that great care is taken to kill the insects before that time, to prevent the young from escaping, and thus disappointing the pro- prietor of the beautiful colour. The insects when picked or brushed oif the plants, are said to be first killed either by the fumes of heated vinegar, or by smoke, and then dried, in which state they are imported into Europe ; and it is said that the Spanish Government is annually more enriched by the profit of the Cochineel trade than by the produce of all its gold-mines. It may perhaps be almost unnecessary to add, that, exclusive of the general or large scale in which Cochineel is used by the dyers, the fine colour so much esteemed in painting, and known by the name of Carmine, is no other than a pre- paration from the same substance, and is un- questionably the most beautiful of all the pictorial reds. It is also used, when properly mixed with 02, 5 S? •5 s o o n 3 COCCUS. ig3 hair-powder, powdered talc, &c. in that innocent cosmetic, so much used by the Ladies, and popu- larly known by the French term Rouge. Coccus Ilicis or Kermes, (the Kermes of the Materia Medica) is a species adhering, in its ad- vanced or pregnant state, to the shoots of the Quercus coccifera, (Ilex aculeata cocciglandifera. C Bauh. pin.) under the form of smooth reddish- brown or blackish powdery grains or balls of the size of small peas. The tree or shrub grows plen- tifully in many parts of France, Spain, Greece, and the islands of the Archipelago. The Cocci are found adhering in groupes of five, six, or more together, or pretty near each other. They are gathered for the purposes of commerce by the country people. Before the discovery of America the Coccus Ilicis or Kermes, as it was then termed, was the most valuable substance for dying scarlet, and was collected in great quantity for that purpose. According to the mildness or severity of the winter the harvest of the Kermes is said to be more or less plentiful; and it is no very uncommon thing to have two harvests in a year. Before dying, the berries are steeped in vinegar, to prevent the' ex- clusion of the young animals by thus killing the parents. They are then spread or thrown on linen, and as long as they continue moist are turned' twice or thrice a day, to prevent their heating, and are afterwards put up for sale. Woolen cloth dyed with Kermes was called v. VI. p. i. 13 19 4 COCCUS'. scarlet in grain ; the animal having been popularly considered as a grain: the colour is a durable, deep red, called ox-blood colour, much inferior to the brilliancy of Cochineel scarlet, but far more lasting, and less liable to stain. Mons r . Hellot, in his Art de tiendre, observes that the figured cloths to be seen in the old tapestries of Brussels and the other manufactures of Flanders, which have scarcely lost any thing of their liveliness by stand- ing for two hundred years, were all dyed with this ingredient. Coccus' Polofiicus. This may be considered as the Cochineel of the North ; being found only in cold climates. It is sometimes collected for the use of dyers, but is greatly inferior as a colour to the American Cochineel. It is chiefly found on the roots of the plant called Scleranthus per- ennis, and is principally produced in Poland. Coccus cataphractus. This very singular species was described several years ago in the fifth volume of the Naturalist's Miscellany, from a specimen communicated by the ingenious Mr. Dickson, Gardener to the British Museum, and well known for his assiduous researches into that difficult branch of Botany the class Cryptogamia. Mr. Dickson, soon after its discovery, requested me to examine its characters, and endeavour to ascertain its genus. I accordingly made a microscopic sur- vey of the animal, and could not but conclude it to be a species of Coccus. The natural size of the insect, (of which the V 3 !■'■ ^ i I I M V' H | i 1 i s> : * d « s > * ! V i ' ■* • G 1,'rar.rtrr TUeeStreU THPjps. igg Thrips physapus of Linnaeus, which is a very small, slender insect, of a black colour, very frequently seen during the spring and summer on various, flowers, more especially on what are termed the compound flowers, as Dandelion, &c. It wanders about the petals of the flower, descending to the bottom of the florets, occasionally emerging at in- tervals, and often skipping from place to place, in performing which action it is observed suddenly to turn back its abdomen, so as nearly to touch the thorax with its tip. The wings are of a semi- transparent white, narrow, and when properly magnified, are observed to be edged and tipped with hairs growing gradually longer as they ap- proach the tips, where they are of considerable length: the lower wings are rather shorter than the upper, beneath which they are, in general, almost concealed: the antenna? consist of six joints, and the feet are tipped with an expansile and apparently vesicular process, enabling the little animal to adhere at pleasure with the greater security to any particular substance. All these particulars require a microscope for their investi- gation, the whole insect not exceeding the tenth of an inch in length. The larva in a great degree resembles the complete insect, but is destitute of wings: when very young it is white, and after- wards of a yellowish or reddish colour, and like the complete insect, is seen wandering about the petals of flowers. The Thrips physapus has been supposed to do much injury to wheat, rye, &c. by causing the 200 THRirsv young flowers to decay ; thus preventing the growth of the embryo grain. This opinion how- ever has by some been considered as erroneous, who have contended that the Thrips does not attach itself to such of the Cerealia as are in a perfectly healthy state, but rather to such as are diseased by having the germina covered with the dust of a very minute fungus, often growing on wheat, &c. and belonging to the genus iEcidium or Lycoperdon, and which makes its appearance in the form of a flattish, smooth, irregular exsu- dation of a yellow colour on various parts of the plant*. The ingenious Mr. Kirby however seems convinced that the Thrips is in reality an insect highly injurious to corn, by deriving its nourish- ment from the embryo grains. * See much on this subject in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, vols. 3, 4, and 5. INS E C T S. ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. HIS splendid Order of Insects furnishes the most conspicuous example of the surprising dif- ference in appearance between the larva or first state of the same animal and its complete or per- fect state, in which it is capable of breeding. The Lepidopterous Insects are divided into three genera, viz. Papilio, Sphinx, and Phalcena, or Butterfly, Sphinx, and Moth. PAPILIO. BUTTERFLY. Generic Character. Antennae apicem versus crassiores, saepiu&clavato- capitatse. Aloe (sedentis) ercctoe sui*- sumque conniventes, (vo- latu diurno.) Antennae \k\\dke\\\x\v towards the extremity, commonly terminating in a knob or clavated tip. IVrngs (when sitting) erect and meeting upwards : (flight diurnal.) '■■ X HE prodigious number of species in this genus makes it absolutely necessary to divide the whole into sections or sets, instituted from the habit or general appearance, and, in some degree, from the distribution of the colour on the wings. This di- vision of the genus is conducted by Linnaeus in a peculiarly elegant and instructive manner, being an attempt to combine, in some degree, natural and civil history, by attaching the memory of some illustrious ancient name to an insect of such or such a particular cast. The first Linnrean division consists of the Equi- tes, distinguished by the shape of their upper wings, which are longer, if measured from their hinder angle to their anterior extremity, than #4 M.Gri/IUh ^.-tiJf>. Epx T . Ac iiiv. BUTTERFLY. 203 from the same point to the base. Some of this division have filiform or sharpened antennae*, in which particular they resemble Moths, but may generally be very clearly distinguished by their habit or general shape. The Equites are either Troes or Trojans, distinguished by having red or blood-coloured spots or patches on each side their breasts, or Achivi, Greeks, without red marks on the breast, of gayer colours in general than the former, and often having an eye-shaped spot at the inner corner of the lower wings. The next division consists of the Hdiconii. These are distinguished by the narrowness of their wings, which are also, in general, of a more trans- parent appearance than in the other divisions- their upper wings are also generally much more oblong than the lower, which are short in propor- tion. The third division consists of the Danai, (from the sons and daughters of Danaus.) They are divided into Danai Candidi, or those in which the ground-colour of the wings is generally white, and the Danai Fest'wi, in which the ground-colour is never white, and in which a greater variety of colour occurs than in the Candidi. The wings of the Danai are of a somewhat rounder shape than those of the Heliconii, or less stretched out. The fourth section consists of the Nymphales, * This part of the generic character is to be received with Some limitation, since in the tribe Equites the antennae are slender at the tip itself, though thickened a little before that part. 204 BUTTERFLY. and is distinguished by the edges of the wings being scolloped or indented: it is subdivided into the Nymphales gemma ti, in which eye-shaped spots are seen either on all the wings, or on the upper or lower pair oidy, and into the Nymphales phale- rati, in which no ocellated spots are visible on the wings, but, in general, a great variety of colours. The fifth section contains the Plebeii. These are, in general, smaller than the preceding kinds of Butterflies, and are subdivided into Plebeii u rbicolce, or those in which the wings are marked by semi- transparent spots, and Plebeii ntralcs-, m which the spots or patches have no transparency. The above distribution of the genus Papilio is not entirely accurate, and must therefore be re- ceived with a proper degree of allowance for a task so seemingly trifling, yet so really difficult. It has been observed by some critics that the blood-coloured spots, mentioned by Linnaeus as characteristic of the Trojans, are not always found; and that the interior angle of the wings in the Achki is not always marked with an eye-shaped spot: that the surest method therefore is, to con- sider such of the Equites as are of dark or mourn- ing colours as belonging to the Troes, and those of gayer or livelier ones to the Achivi. It is added, that the under wings in some of the IleUconii are slightly indented, and might perhaps as well have been referred to the Nymphales phalerati ; that the under wings of the Danai jestivi are also often indented; and lastly, that the family of the Plebeii? is particularly inaccurate, many of those insects BUTTERVLY. 205 having characters which would more properly entitle them to a place in some of the other di- visions. The larva? of Butterflies are universally and em- phatically known hy the name of Caterpillars, and are extremely various in their forms and colours, some being smooth, others beset with either simple or ramified spines, &c. and some, especially those belonging to the, division Equites, are observed to protrude from their front, when disturbed, a pair of short tentacula or feelers, some- what analogous to those of a snail. A Caterpillar, when grown to its full size, retires to some convenient spot, and securing itself pro- perly by a small quantity of silken filaments, either suspends itself by the tail, hanging with its head downwards, or else in an upright position, with the body fastened round the middle by a proper number of filaments. It then casts oft' the cater- pillar skin, and commences chrysalis, in which state it continues till the inclosed Butterfly is ready for birth, which, liberating itself from the skin of the chrysalis, remains till its wings, which are at first very short, weak, and covered with moisture, are fully extended: this happens in the space of about a quarter of an hour,when the ani- mal suddenlv quits the state of inactivity to which it had been so long confined, and becomes at plea- sure an inhabitant of air. The papilionaceous insects in general, soon after their enlargement from the chrysalis, and '•ommonly during their first flight, discharge some <20G BUTTERFLY. drops of a red-coloured fluid, more or less intense in different species. This circumstance, exclusive of its analogy to the same process of Nature in other animals, is peculiarly worthy of attention from the explanation which it affords of a pheno- menon sometimes considered, both in ancient and modern times, in the light of a prodigy; viz. the descent of red drops from the air ; which has been called a shower of blood: an event recorded by several writers, and particularly by Ovid, among the prodigies which took place after the death of the great dictator. " Saepe faces visae mediis ardere sub astris, Saepe inter nimbos guttae cecidere cruentae." With threatening signs the lowering skies were fill'd, And sanguine drops from murky clouds distilTd. This highly rational elucidation of a pheno- menon at first view so inexplicable, seems to have been first given by the celebrated Peiresc, who with his own eyes observed the vestiges of an ap- pearance of this kind in France in the year 1608, and was clearly convinced of its real origin, viz. the discharge above-mentioned from a species of Butterfly, (perhaps the P. urtica?, or P. poly- chloros,) which happened during that season to be uncommonly plentiful in the particular district where the phenomenon was observed. The same idea was also entertained by Swammerdam, though he does not appear to have verified it from his own observation. 65 — - — i S BUTTERFLY* ^0/ I shall now proceed to give a few examples of species belonging to each division of the genus Papilio. Among the Equites Troes the Papilio Prlamus should take the lead, not only from the correspond- ing dignity of the name, but from the exquisite appearance of the animal itself, which Linnaeus considered as the most beautiful of the whole papilionaceous tribe. " Papilionum omnium prin- ceps, longe augustissimus, totus holosericus, ut dubitem pulchrius quidquam, a Natura in insectis productum." This admirable species measures more than six inches from wings end to wings end: the upper wings are velvet black, with a broad band of the most beautiful grass-green and of a satiny lustre drawn from the shoulder to the tip, and another on the lower part of the wing, following the shape of that part, and of a somewhat undulating appear- ance as it approaches the tip: the lower wings are of the same green colour, edged with velvet-black, and marked by four spots of that colour, while at the upper part of each, or at the part where the upper-wings lap over, is a squarish orange-coloured spot: the thorax is black with sprinklings of lucid green ' in the middle, and the abdomen is of a bright yellow or gold-colour. On the under side of the animal the distribution of colours is some- what different, the green being disposed in central patches on the upper wings, and the lower being marked by more numerous black as well as orange spots. The red or bloody spots on each side the 208 .BUTTERFLY. thorax are not always to be seen on this the Trojan Monarch. The Papilio Priamus is a very rare insect, and is a native of the island of Amboyna. P. Anterior is a very large species, measuring six inches and a half in extent of wings : its colour is black, with numerous cream-coloured spots and patches, and the under-wings, which are tailed or furnished with a pair of lengthened processes in the middle, are edged with a row of red crescent- shaped spots. It is said to be a native of India. P. Hector is very happily named, being of a deep or velvet black colour, with the lower wings marked by numerous blood-red spots: the thorax is red on each side, and the upper wings have a pair of obscure, broken, whitish, transverse clouds or bars. It is a native of the East Indies. P. Sarpedon is a highly elegant species: the wings are of a lengthened shape, and the lower pair are stretched downwards into a pointed pro- cess: the whole animal is black, with a broad, interrupted pea-green stripe or band passing through all the wings: on the lower part is also a border of crescent-shaped green spots. Among the Eqnites Achivi the P. Menelaus may be considered as one of the most splendidly beautiful of the Butterfly tribe. Its size is large, measuring, when expanded, about six inches; and its colour is the most brilliant silver-blue that ima- gination can conceive, changing, according to the variation of the light, into a deeper blue, and in some lights to a greenish cast: on the under side it is entirely brown, with numerous deeper and 66 BUTTERFLY. 20Q lighter undulations, and three large ocellated spots on each wing. It is a native of South-America, and proceeds, according to Madam Merian, who has figured it in her work on the Surinam Insects, from a large yellow caterpillar, beset with numer- ous, upright, sharp, black spines. It changes into an angular chrysalis, of a brown colour, and di- stinguished by having the proboscis projecting in a semicircular manner over the breast: from this chrysalis, in about fourteen days, proceeds the complete insect. The P. Machaon is an insect of great beauty, and may be considered as the only British species of Papilio belonging to the tribe of Equites*. It is commonly known among the English collect- ors by the title of the Swallow-Tailed Butterfly, and is of a beautiful yellow, with black spots or patches along the upper edge of the superior wings: all the wings are bordered with a deep edging of black, decorated by a double row of crescent-shaped spots, of which the upper row is blue, and the lower yellow: the under wings are tailed, and are marked at the inner angle or tip with a round red spot bordered with blue and black. The caterpillar of this species feeds princi- pally on fennel and other umbelliferous plants, and is sometimes found on rue. It is of a green, colour, encircled with numerous black bands spotted with red, and is furnished on the top of * Unless we admit the Papilio Podalirius to be a British species also . v. vi. p. i. 14 210 BUTTERFLY. the head with a pair of short tentacula of a red colour, which it occasionally protrudes from that part. In the month of July it changes into a yellowish-grey angular chrysalis, affixed to some convenient part of the plant, or other neighbour- ing substance, and from this chrysalis in the month of August proceeds the complete insect. It some- times happens that two broods of this butterfly are produced in the same summer, viz. the first in May, having lain all winter in the chrysalis state, and the second in August, from the chrysalides of July. Of the division called Heliconii the beautiful insect the Papilio Apollo is an example. It is a native of many parts of Europe, but has not yet been observed in our own country, and is some- what larger than the common great cabbage- butterfly; of a white colour, with a slight semi- transparency towards the tips of the wings, which are decorated with velvet-black spots, and on each of the lower wings are two most beautiful ocel- lated spots consisting of a carmine-coloured circle with a white centre and black exterior border. The caterpillar is black, with small red spots, and a pair of short retractile tentacula in front: it feeds on Orpine and some other succulent plants, and changes into a brown chrysalis, covered with a kind of glaucous or violet-coloured powder. P. Piera has semitransparent wings, with the lower pair marked by two ocellated black spots with a yellow ring and centre. It is a native of South-America. Papxliq , / Hexiconii Apollo \ / Pizra, J£.l*nrfiTJi ,rrtiA>. Polyhymnia i8c3. £>ct'i £,i?i,1.-,r> /h,i,h..i,..j i.. /- PAT I LID 68 T. Z,eiU/s BUTTERFLY. 21] P. Cratcegi or the Hawthorn Butterfly is nearly Of the size of the common cabbage butterfly, and is of a white colour, with black fibres on the wings, and is seen in the months of June and July. Of the longer winged Heliconii the P. Ricini is a good example: it is black, with two yellowish, obliquely-transverse bands on the upper wings, while the lower are deeply bordered with black. It is a native of South-America. Of the division entitled Danai Candidi the com- mon large white Butterfly, or P. Bramcce is a familiar example: this insect is too well known to require particular description, and it may be only necessary to remind the reader that it proceeds from a yellowish caterpillar freckled with blueish and black spots, and which changes during the autumn into a yellowish grey chrysalis, affixed in a perpendicular direction to some wall, tree, or other object, some filaments being drawn across the thorax in order the more conveniently to secure its position. The fly appears in May and June, and is seen through all the summer. The term Candidi in this division, being applied only in a general sense, it of course contains some species of a different colour: among these one of the most elegant is the P. Rhamni or Buckthorn Butterfly, of a bright sulphur-colour, with sharp- cornered wings marked by a small orange spot in the middle of each. It is not uncommon during spring and autumn. P. Hyak or the Fern Butterfly is also in this '212 BUTTERFLY. division, and is a beautiful species with orange- yellow wings deeply bordered with black. Of the Danai Festivi the P. Midamus may serve as an example; an elegant Asiatic species, of a black colour, with a varying blue lustre to- wards the tips of the upper wings, which are mark- ed by many white spots, while the lower pair are streaked longitudinally with numerous white lines, and edged with a row of white specks. P. Sophorce is also of this tribe: it is of a fine brown colour, with a bright orange-ferruginous bar across the upper wings, and a more obscure one of similar colour round the lower part of the under wings : it is a native of South-America, and according to Madam Merian, proceeds from a large rufous caterpillar marked above by narrow longitudinal white stripes. Among the Nymphales Gemmati few can ex- ceed in elegance the P. Io or Peacock Butter- fly, a species by no means uncommon in our own country: the ground-colour of this insect is orange-brown, with black bars separated by yellow intermediate spaces on the upper edge of the su- perior wings, while at the tip of each is a most beautiful large eye-shaped spot, formed by a com- bination of black, brown, and blue, with the addi- tion of whitish specks : on each of the lower wings is a still larger eye-shaped spot, consisting of a black central patch, varied with blue, and sur- rounded by a zone of pale brown, which is itself deeply bordered with black: all the wings are scolloped or denticulated. The caterpillar is Dakai Pestivi 60 Cratoxyv Brassiece. Danai Candidi M.Cri/^t/i Jvuh?. trt,i.-, /','/'.■ / ,•/•//.•/>,-•/ /n ■ /,' A'.vrr.t/ri /V,s/ A>rrs/ . 7° IP AMI* HO. IsTYMPHALE S PHA1EKATI. &=sfc: AtaLanta faphia/ tfurthia/ Jl.JriJ7U/i» jvm^T. Nymphaies gemmati iSojj.Oot'i Lc/idcnFufrfc/ied if C-.SaovUv.FUet Street^ BUTTERFLY. 213 black, with numerous white spots, and black ramified spines: it feeds principally on the Nettle, changing to chrysalis in July, and the fly appear- ing in August. P. Jurtina is a species equally common, though far less beautiful. It is chiefly observed in mea- dows, and is of a brown colour, the upper wings having a much brighter or orange-ferruginous bar towards the tips, with a small, black, eye-shaped spot with a white centre : on the opposite or under side of the insect the same distribution of colours takes place. Of the Nymphales PJialerati few can surpass the common English species called P. Atalanta or the Admirable Butterfly: it is of the most intense velvet-black colour, with a rich carmine-coloured bar across the upper wings, which are spotted towards the tips with white; while the lower wings are black, with a deep border of carmine-colour marked by a row of small black spots: the under surface of the wings also presents a most beautiful mixture of colours: the caterpillar is brown and spiny, feeds on Nettles, and changes into a chry- salis in July, the Fly appearing in August. P. Paphia is a highly elegant insect, of a fine orange-chesnut colour above, with numerous black spots and bars: beneath greenish, with narrow silvery undulations on the lower wings and black spots on the upper. It proceeds from a yellowish brown spiny caterpillar, living principally on nettles. This insect is generally found in the neighbourhood of woods. 214 BUTTERFLY. Of the last division, termed Plebeii, may be ad-? duced as an example a small English Butterfly called P. Malvce, of a blackish or brown colour, with numerous whitish and semitransparent spots. It belongs to the Plebeii Urbicolce. The P. Betalce is also seen in woods, and is a small species, of a blackish-brown colour, with a broad orange bar on the upper wings, the lower pair being slightly produced into two orange- coloured tails or processes towards the inner corner. This species belongs to the Plebeii Ru- rales. To this latter division also belongs a very beauti- ful exotic species, a native of India, and of a most exquisite lucid blue colour, edged with black, and farther ornamented by having each of the lower wings tipped with two narrow black tail-shaped processes. It is the P. Marsyas of Linnaeus. TFA-PTIHTO, PLEBEII RTTltAl,ES. Marsyas Morio ? //////vr .'/'. Griffith ynu/\ PlIBEH tTRBTCOHA. ' tVif IZondon .Tublished /'i (r.Zazrslcj TbetSOcei J < */;/Z iy r j /£. tA&ncc -iCg^fe SPHINX. SPHINX. Generic Character. Antenna medio crassiores, seu utraque extremitate attenuate, subprisma- ticae. Alee deflexae (volatu gravi- ore vespcrtino seu matu- tino.) Antenna thickest in the middle, subprismatic, and attenuated at each ex- tremity. Wings deflected. (Flight strong, and commonly in the evening or morning.) -L HE Insects of this genus are sometimes called by the title of Hawk-Moths, and have in general a large thorax and thick body, commonly taper- ing towards the extremity. The flight of the larger kinds is chiefly confined to the evening or early morning hours, few species appearing on the wing in the middle of the day. The name Sphinx is applied to the genus on account of the posture assumed by the larvae of several of the larger species, which are often seen in an attitude much resembling that of the Egyptian Sphinx, viz. with the fore-parts elevated, and the rest of the body applied flat to the surface. One of the most elegant insects of this genus is the Sphinx Ligustri or Privet Hawk-Moth. It is a large insect, measuring nearly four inches and a 21 6 SPHINX. half from wings end to wings end: the upper wings are of a brown colour, most elegantly varied or shaded with deeper and lighter streaks and patches; the under wings and body are of a fine rose-colour, barred with transverse black stripes. The caterpillar, which is very large, is smooth, and of a fine green, with seven oblique purple and white stripes along each side: at the extremity of the body, or top of the last joint, is a horn or process pointing backwards. This beautiful cater- pillar is often found in the months of July and August feeding on the Privet, the Lilac, the Pop- lar, and some other trees, and generally changes to a chrysalis in August or September, retiring for that purpose to a considerable depth beneath the surface of the ground, and, after casting its skin, continuing during the whole winter in a dormant state, the Sphinx emerging from it in the succeeding June. Sphinx Ocellata is perhaps still more beautiful: it is a rather smaller insect than the preceding, and has the upper wings and body brown, the former finely clouded with different shades, while the lower wings are of a bright rose-colour, each marked with a large ocellated black spot with a blue interior circle and a black centre. This in- sect proceeds from a green caterpillar of a rough or shagreen-like surface, marked on each side by seven oblique yellowish-white streaks, and fur- nished, like the preceding, with a horn at the tail. It is principally found on the Willow; retires under ground, in order to undergo its change .S i J i i i \ \ 7^ Spfo. ocellaixv. | , ■ iBc£.Oct~.i Lcndon .fu6/i&h*>U />i &J£taA?L \ 7 . ./. . Srn 7 3 *vv,' y. ■ • ". » W h\\\ 1 . >'. <\ /< r,/, n Pubfijbed. by GKearjlev 'Fleet Street SPHINX. 21Q 1804, in which the caterpillar was so common in some counties as to be very prejudicial to the potatoe-plants, particularly in some parts of Corn- wall, Surry, &c. The alteration of form which the whole of the papilionaceous tribe undergo, and in a particular manner the changes above-described of the genus Sphinx, afford a subject of the most pleasing contemplation to the mind of the naturalist, and though a deeply philosophical survey demonstrates that there is no real or absolute change produced in the identitv of the creature itself, or that it is in reality no other than the gradual and progres- sive evolution of parts before concealed, and which lay masqued under the form of an insect of a widely different appearance, yet it is justly viewed with the highest admiration, and even generally acknowledged as in the most lively manner typical of the last eventful change. If any regard is to be paid to a similarity of names, it should seem that the ancients were suf- ficiently struck with the transformations of the Butterfly, and its revival from a seeming tempo- rary death, as to have considered it as an emblem of the soul; the Greek word ^x 7 ) signifying both the soul and a butterfly. This is also confirmed by their allegorical sculptures, in which the butter- fly occurs as an emblem of immortality. Modern naturalists, impressed with the same idea, and laudably solicitous to apply it as an illustration of the awful mystery revealed in the sacred writings, have drawn their allusions to it 220 SPHINX. from the dormant condition of the papilionaceous insects during their state of chrysalis, and their resuscitation from it; but they have, in general, unfortunately chosen a species the least proper for the purpose; viz. the Silkworm, an animal which neither undergoes its changes under the surface of the earth, nor, when emerged from its tomb, is it an insect of any remarkable beauty; but the larva or caterpillar of the Sphinx, when satiate of the food allotted to it during that state, retires to a very considerable depth beneath the surface of the ground, where it divests itself of all appearance of its former state, and continues buried during several months; then rises to the surface, and bursting from the confinement of its tomb, commences a being of powers so com- paratively exalted, and of beauty so superior as not to be beheld without the highest admiration. Even the animated illustration taken from the vegetable world, so justly admired, as best calcu- lated for general apprehension, must yield in the force of its similitude to that drawn from the in- sect's life, since Nature exhibits few phenomena that can equal so wonderful a transformation. I must here request the reader's permission to repeat on this subject some lines long ago intro- duced into the pages of the Naturalist's Mis- cellany. The helpless crawling caterpillar trace From the first period of his reptile race. Cloth'd in dishonour, on the leafy spray Unseen he wears his silent hours away. sphinx. 221 Till satiate grown of all that life supplies, Self-taught the voluntary martyr dies. Deep under earth his darkling course he bends, And to the tomb, a willing guest, descends. There, long secluded in his lonely cell, Forgets the sun, and bids the world farewel. O'er the wide waste the wintry tempests reign, And driving snows usurp the frozen plain. In vain the tempest beats, the whirlwind blows; No storms can violate his grave's repose. But when revolving months have won their way, When smile the woods, and when the zephyrs play, When laughs the vivid world in summer's bloom, He bursts and flies triumphant from the tomb, And, while his new-born beauties he displays, With conscious joy his alter d form surveys. Mark, while he moves amid the sunny beam, O'er his soft wings the varying lustre gleam. Launch'd into air, on purple plumes he soars, Gay Nature's face with wanton glance explores; Proud of his various beauties wings his way, And spoils the fairest flowers, himself more fair than they! And deems weak Man the future promise vain, When worms can die, and glorious rise again? G. S. I must not conclude the survey of the genus Sphinx without observing that it contains some species of a smaller size and of a somewhat differ- ent habit from the kinds above described. Among these is the beautiful Sphinx FiWpendulce or Drop- wort Sphinx, common in meadows towards the decline of summer, and which is distinguished by having the upper wings of an oblong-oval shape and of a dark shining green colour, with blood- red spots, and the lower wings red with a dark green edging: the caterpillar is of a pale yellow, 222 SPHINX. with rows of squarish black spots, and is often seen feeding on various meadow plants and grasses: it does not undergo its change under ground, but encloses itself in an oval shining yellow web of silk, attached to the stem of some grass, &c. In this it changes into a chrysalis, out of which in about the space of three weeks emerges the com- plete insect. Others of the smaller Sphinges are remarkable for having the wings in a considerable degree transparent : of this kind is the Sphinx apiformis, which is of an aspect at first sight more resem- bling that of a wasp or hornet than of a Sphinx, the wings being transparent with merely a slight edging of brown, and the thorax and abdomen varied with black and yellow. The caterpillar inhabits the hollows of Poplar, Sallow, Willow, and Lime trees, feeding on the substance of the bark; changing to a chrysalis in April, and the Fly appearing in the month of June. Sphinx crabroniformis is so much like the former as scarcely to be distinguished from it, and in- habits the hollows of the Sallow and other Willows, feeding on the wood: it changes to a chrysalis in May, and the Fly appears in July. w :, , XA. Ph. Jiawmou. lScJ.OctTiZondciu TuhKjJuJ iji fr.Eearslty , Fleet Street. PHALiENA. MOTH. Generic Character. Antenna? setacea?, a basi ad apicem sensim attenuatse. AI.■„ . fltitJtrvet MOTH. ' 23 I degree of heat as to kill the inclosed chrysalides; a few only being saved for the breed of the following year; The Moth, when hatched, is a very short- lived animal; breeding soon after its exclusion, and when the females have laid their eggs, they, as well as the males, survive but a very short time. The length of the silken fibre or thread drawn by the silkworm in forming his ball, is computed by Mons r . Isnard, a French author, who wrote on the subject of the Silkworm in the seventeenth century;, to be six English miles in length. This computation however appears to be a greatly ex- aggerated one. The length indeed may be sup- posed to differ considerably in different silk-balls, but in general will be found far short of what is stated by Isnard. According to Boyle, as quoted by Derham, a lady, on making the experiment, found the length of a ball to be considerably more than three hundred yards, though the weight was only two grains and a half. The Abbe La Pluche informs us that of two balls one measured nine hundred and twent}-four feet, and the other nine hundred and thirty. It may be proper to add, that the silk throughout its whole length is double, or composed of two conjoined or aggluti- nated filaments*. The general history of the manufacture of Silk * In the Encyclopaedia Britannica we are informed that the length varies in different coccoons from 200 to 1200 ells, and that in general we may calculate the production of a coccoon from 500 to 600 ells in length. 232 MOTH. may be found in the Cyclopaedia of Mr. Chambers , and many other similar publications, and is nearly as follows. The art of manufacturing Silk is said to have been first invented in the island of Cos, by a woman of the name of Pamphills the daughter of Platis. The discovery was not long unknown to the Romans. Silk was brought to them from Serica, where the insect itself was a native; but so far were they from profiting by the discovery, that they could not be induced to believe so fine a thread to be the work of an insect, and formed many chimerical conjectures of their own on the subject. Silk was a very scarce article among them for many ages: it was even sold weight for weight with gold ; insomuch that Vopiscus in- forms us that the Emperor Aurelian, who died A. D. 275, refused the Empress his wife a robe of silk, which she earnestly solicited, merely on ac- count of its dearness. Others however, with greater probability, assert that it was known at Rome so early as the reign of Tiberius, about A. D. 17. Galen, who lived about the year of our Lord 173, speaks of the rarity of Silk, being no where then but at Rome, and there only among the rich. Heliogabalus the Emperor, who died A. D. 220, is said by some to have been the first person that wore a holosericum, i. e. a garment entirely of silk. < The Greeks of the army of Alexander the Great are said to have been the first who brought wrought silk from Persia into Greece, about 323 years before Christ; but the manufacture of it was MOTH. 233 first confined to Berytus and Tyre in Phoenicia, whence it was dispersed over the West. At length two monks, coming from the Indies to Constan- tinople, in 555, under the encouragement of the Emperor Justinian, brought with them great quan- tities of Silkworms, with instructions for hatching the eggs, rearing and feeding the worms, and drawing, spinning, and working the Silk. Upon this, manufactures were set up at Athens, Thebes, and Corinth. The Venetians, soon after this time commencing a commerce with the Greek Empire, supplied all the Western parts of Europe with silks for many centuries; though several kinds of modern silk manufactures were unknown in those times, such as Damasks, Velvets, Satins, &c. About the year 1130, Roger the second, King of Sicily, established a silk manufacture at Palermo, and another in Calabria, managed by workmen who were a part of the plunder brought from Athens, Corinth, &c. whereof that prince made a conquest in his expedition to the Holy Land. By degrees, adds Mezeray, the rest of Italy, as well as Spain, learned from the Sicilians and Calabrians the ma- nagement of Silkworms, and the working of Silk; and at length the French acquired it, by right of neighbourhood, a little before the reign of Francis the first, and began to imitate them. Thuanus indeed, in contradiction to most other writers, makes the manufacture of Silk to be introduced into Sicily two hundred years later, by Robert the Wise, King of Sicily, and Count of Provence. It appears by the 33d. of Henry 6th. cap. 5, 234 MOTH. that there was a company of Silk-Women in Eng- land so early as the year 1455; but these were probably employed in needle-works of silk and thread; and we find that various sorts of small haberdashery of Silk were manufactured here in 1482; but Italy supplied England and all other parts with the broad manufacture till the year 1489. In Spain indeed the culture and manu- facture of silk seem to have been introduced at an early period by the Moors, particularly in Murcia, Cordova, and Granada. The silk-manufacturers of this last town were very flourishing when it was taken by Ferdinand, &c. at the close of the fifteenth century. In 1521, the French, being supplied with workmen from Milan, commenced a silk manufacture; but it was long after this time before they could obtain raw silk from the worms, and even in the year 1547 silk was scarce and dear in France, and King Henry the second is said to have been the first in that country who wore a pair of silk knit stockings; though the invention originally came from Spain, whence silk stockings were brought over to Henry the eighth, and Ed- ward the sixth. After the civil wars in France, the plantation of Mulberry-trees was greatly en- couraged by King Henry the fourth and his suc- cessors, and the produce of silk in France is at this day very considerable. The great advantage which the new manufacture afforded, made our James the first very earnest for its introduction into England ; and accordingly it was recom- mended several times from the throne, and in the MOTH. 235 most earnest terms, particularly in the year 1608, to plant mulberry-trees for the propagation of silkworms, but unhappily without effect; though from various experiments, recorded in the Philo- sophical Transactions, &c. it appears that the silk- worm thrives and works as well in England as in any other part of Europe. It should not here be omitted that James the first, while King of Scot- land, is said to have once written to the Earl of Mar, one of his friends, to borrow a pair of silk stockings, in order to appear with becoming dig- nity before the English Ambassador; concluding his epistle with these words; " for ye would not, sure, that your King should appear like a scrub before strangers." This shews the great rarity of silk articles at that period in Scotland; and we are told that our own Queen Elizabeth was pre- sented by her silk-woman Mrs. Montague, with a pair of black silk stockings, with which her Majesty was so captivated that she resolved in future to wear no other stockings than silk ones. Towards the end of James the first's reign, viz. about 1620, the broad silk-manufacture was intro- duced into this country, and prosecuted with great vigour and advantage. In 1629 the silk-manu- facture was become so considerable in London, that the silk throwsters of the city and parts ad- jacent were incorporated, under the names of Master, Wardens, &c. of the Silk-Throwsters, and in 1661 this company employed above forty thou- sand persons. The revocation of the edict of Nantes. 236 MOTH. in l685, contributed in a great degree to promote the silk manufacture in England, as did also the invention of the silk throwing machine at Derby in 1719. So high in reputation was the English silk-manufacture, that even in Italy, according to Keysler (trav. vol. l. p. I8g. ) the English silks bore a higher price than the Italian. In the next division, or Noctuw, stands the beau- tiful Phalcena Nupta, a moderately large species, with the upper wings of a fine grey colour, ele- gantly clouded and varied with shades and lines of dark brown, &c. and the under wings of a vivid crimson, with two broad transverse black bars : the body is grey, but white underneath. The caterpillar, which is of a pale, flesh-coloured grey, is distinguished by a dorsal tubercle on the fore part of the body, and feeds chiefly on the willow : it changes to a chrysalis in July? and the Moth appears in August and September. The divi- sion Noctuce, like that of Bombyx, is extremely numerous. As an example of the Geometrce we may adduce a veiy elegant moth often seen towards the middle of summer on the Elder, and called Phaltma sam- bucaria : it is moderately large, of a pale sulphur- colour, with angular wings, marked by a narrow transverse brown line' or streak. It proceeds from a green caterpillar, which like those of the rest of this section, walks in a peculiar manner; viz. by raising up the body at each progressive move- ment into the form of an arch or loop, the extre- FHALM^.A. . -*