THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

1. Centns flavopicta.

2. Oxaea fiavescens.

3. Euglossa analis.

4. Euglossa pulchra.

BEAUTIFUL EXOTIC BEES. -

5. A new and unnamed species of Xylocopa.

6. Xylocopa nobihs.

. JMiglossa violacea.
8. Euglossa Bruilei.

CURIOSITIES

ENTOMOLOGY

M'itli j.'i-nutifuUij-^almtrr-d Illustrations,

FROM DRAAYINGS BY EMINENT ARTISTS.

LOXDOX :
<; IM)OM I1KIDGE AX D so X s.

:>, PATERNOSTER EOW.

LONDON :

R. BARRETT AND SONS, PRINTERS,
MAKK LANK.

CONTENTS.

BEES AND THEIR COUNTERFEITS . .5

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BEETLES . . . . 18

THE MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA, OR LEAF-MINERS . . . 25

THE COLEOPHORA, OR TEXT-MAKERS . . . 33

THE EPHEMERA, OR MAT-FLY . . . . .39

MIMETIC ANALOGY ....... 44

INSECT DISGUISES 51

THE OAK-FEEDING SILKWORM OF CHINA ... 55

INSECTS' EGGS 60

THE MICROSCOPE 63

M36858O

BEES AND THEIR COUNTERFEITS.

1. Xylocopa nigrita, (male.)

2. Xylocopa nigrita, (femaie.)

3. Euglossa dimidiata.

7. Crocisa

4. Chrysantheda frontal);

5. Euglossa cordata.

6. Aiithophora elegans.
picta.

CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

BEES AND THEIR COUNTERFEITS.

THE Bee is a name common to all the species of a very
numerous tribe of Insects of the order Hymenoptera. The
bee family was termed by the great French naturalist
Latreille, Mellifera (honey-gatherers), or Anthophila (flower-
lovers), both terms being characteristic of the general habits
of the family, but the former the most appropriate. In
England alone about 250 species have been discovered. No
insect is so well known to the general public as the common
hive-bee (Apis mellifica) of North- Western Europe. All the
habits, peculiarities, and wonderful and interesting social
arrangements of this insect have been described and explained
in numerous works ; but, although the natural history of
our common hive-bee has been made so generally known, the
other members of the bee family have found but few popular
historians, and less is generally kno\vn about them, except to
entomologists, than about other far less interesting insect
families.

Yet there are many wonderful peculiarities connected with
different species of the bee tribe which would amply repay
the labour of a little observation and study. We shall, there-
fore, direct the reader's attention to a few remarkable species
of British and foreign bees, more especially with reference to
certain extraordinary resemblances which exist between some
of the honey-collecting species and those belonging to the

6 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

parasitic or cuckoo class, which will lead to the notice of still
more curious resemblances that exist between bees and cer-
tain insects belonging to the distinct order Diptera. These
last, though only furnished with two wings, while the bees
'and the whole order (Hymenoptera) to which they belong
have four, yet bear such a striking resemblance to the bees,
in company with which they are found, that an untrained
observer would not, certainly at a first glance, perceive the
difference that really exists.

One of the most remarkable features in those species of
bees which live in societies, as is well known in the case of
the common hive-bee, is the existence of a third sex, the
neuter or worker ; and there are other singular peculiarities
of this sort in less known species, such as the existence of two
distinct kinds of females.

The material of which the egg-cells are composed is very
various in the different species. The comb of the hive-bee, as
is well known, is made of wax, secreted in a peculiar manner;*
but other species, though forming a comb almost identical in
appearance, make it by the manipulation of certain substances
which they reduce to a material resembling common paper ;
while others form cells of sand, moistened with a glutinous
secretion, which reduces it to a kind of tenacious cement.

Some of these species, again, collect an inferior kind of
honey, while others only collect pollen, of which they place a
small mass or ball in each cell in which an egg is to be depo-
sited, so as to furnish a supply of food for the grub or larva
to subsist on till full grown. This substance is collected solely
to form food for the larvae. The exact quantity sufficient is
prepared by the instinct of the parent ; and, in fact, when
that is consumed, the young grub bee is compelled to subside
at once into the torpor during which his change of organisa-
tion is to take place, as he has no powers of locomotion, being

* For a description of the process, and for all general information
respecting the habits and management of the common hive-bee,
see "The Beekeeper's Manual," by Henry Taylor. Price 4s.
(Jroombridge & Sons, 5, Paternoster Row, London.

EKES AND THEIR COUNTERFEITS. <

a clumsy maggot-formed larva, and, being placed at the
bottom of a smooth-sided cell, has uo means of seeking food
for himself.

In many instances it is only by the bees travelling from
tlower to flower that the pollen or farina is carried from the
male to the female flowers, without which they would not
fructify. One species of bee would not be sufficient to fructify
all the various sorts of flowers, were the bees of that species
ever so numerous, for it requires species of different sizes
and different constructions. "M. Sprengel found, that
not only are insects indispensable in fructifying different
species of Iris, but that some of them, as /. jdphinm, require
the agency of the larger humble-bees, which alone are strong
enough to force their way beneath the stile flag ; and hence,
as these insects are not so common as many others, this Iris is
often barren, or bears imperfect seeds."

The tribes of parasitic bees which do not make cells to
contain honey or pollen for the separate use of each infant
bee, visit the nests of their more industrious cousins, and
surreptitiously place an egg of their own in the cell contain-
ing the honey or pollen, as the case may be.

" It was formerly believed," says Mr. Noel Humphreys,
" that the egg of the parasitic, bee was placed in the same
cell with the egg of the honey-bee, and that being hatched
first, the young parasite devoured all the food, leaving the
infant of the honey-bee to find himself born to an empty
larder, and consequently speedy starvation ; but more recent
observation has led to the conclusion that this is not the case,
but that the parasitic bee, on entering the nest, selects cells
already furnished with honey or pollen, but in which no egg
has yet been laid. While the unsuspicious female proprietors
of the nest, finding an unexpected egg deposited in the cell
they first visit, exhibit no sign of surprise, but pass on to the
next, not seeming to be at all disturbed by the presence of the
uninvited deposit ; just as small birds make no attempt to ex-
clude the egg of the cuckoo, but hatch it, and rear the young
intruder along with their own offspring. This occurs in the
nests of wild bees constructed in different situations, some

8 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

kinds making an excavation expressly, others adopting the
deserted work of some other insect, or taking advantage of an
accidental hollow. For instance, Anthidium manicatum, one
of our summer bees, generally uses the holes bored in willow
stumps by the Cossus ligniperda; but a nest of this species
was once found, as described by Mr. F. Smith, in the key-
hole of a garden door. Some of the humble-bees, on the
other hand, carefully construct their own burrow. A beau-
tiful exotic species, a large and powerful bee, has received the
specific name of Latipes, from the singular broadening and
strengthening of the front pair of feet. These broadened
feet assume somewhat of the character of the front feet of the
mole, or rather those of that curious insect, the mole cricket.
These enlarged feet, with the thick brushes of strong hairs
with which they are furnished, are evidently excavating
implements, and no doubt the works produced by their agency
are of a very interesting kind ; but entomological discovery
has not at present made us acquainted with the nest archi-
tecture of this handsome insect. A pretty little English bee,
one of the solitary kind, often makes its burrow in sheltered
parts of hard gravel walks ; an affair evidently of very great
labour, as the female bee, who is the sole architect in this
instance, frequently comes to the opening of the burrow to
rest, when the male companion commences flying rapidly
round and round his mate, as though to encourage her to
renew her task."

Among those species most subject to parasitic intruders is
the common garden humble-bee, Bomlus hortorum, of which
we give an engraving (Fig. 1) side by side with its parasite
Apathus barbutellus (Fig. 2). These bees so closely resemble
each other, that one may easily be mistaken for the other,
even by those aware of the resemblance, till alter a close
examination, as they are almost identical in colour, size, and
general form. There is, however, one marked difference,
which is easily perceived Avhen the eye has been taught where
to look for it ; for the hind legs of the honey or pollen collector
invariably have .an enlarged tibia, or large bone of the leg,
the flattened and somewhat hollowed breadth of which

in:i:,< AND THEIU COUNTERFEITS.

as a receptacle in which the pollen collected from flowers is
carried to the nest. This peculiarity of form is seen in the
engraving, Fig. 1 ; while the corresponding part of the hind
leg, as shown in Fig. 2, will be observed to be simply rounded.
These parasites, having neither the instinct to collect food for
their expected progeny, nor, in fact, the means of carrying it
home, even if they had the desire, have been considered by
naturalists to be entirely without those parental and home
instincts which distinguish the collecting and harvesting
kinds, and from this apparent apathy in regard to providing
food or protection for their young being the chief charac-

teristics of all parasites, the whole genus has been named
Aputhus, by an eminent English naturalist, in place of the
name Cuculincv, or cuckoo-bees, given to them by Latreille.
The light band on the thorax, or forepart near the head, is less
distinct in the Apatlins, and the abdomen is less profusely
furred.

The insect shown in Fig. 3 is still more curious, and
although, at first sight, it seems to resemble both the bees so
much as to be mistaken for them, it will be found on closer
examination to be not only far from identical, but radically
different. It is, in fact, merely the size and general colouring
which deceive the untrained eye. On examination, almost
every part of its structure will be found to be very distinct
from that of the bee : the eyes are differently placed, and

10 CUiUOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

differently formed, while their size and colour are nearly
identical with those of the bees ; the antenna?, instead of
being horny and robust, like those of the bee, are delicately
slender and feathered, like some kinds of moths ; but these,
not being conspicuous appendages, escape the attention of
the ordinary observer. The thorax is, however, furred with
orange hairs next to the head, which become yellow near to
the abdomen, leaving the centre of the thorax black; the
segments of the abdomen nearest the thorax are clothed with
yellow fur ; the central segments are black, and the last
segments, or tail, are white. This is precisely the colouring
of both the bees shown in Figs. 1 and 2 ; but then the single
pair of wings shows the trained observer that it belongs to
another and distinct order of insects, the Dipte.ra, or two-
winged order. The legs, also, have not the enlarged or
honey-bearing tibiae, and even the anatomical structure of the
body itself, though disguised by the fur clothing of the iden-
tical colour of that of the two bees, is of itself amply sufficient
to show that the insect belongs to another and very distinct
class.

" Still," says Mr. Noel Humphreys, " the close general
resemblance of this insect, Voluceila phimata, is indisputable,
and as it passes into the nest of the bee, in order to deposit
its eggs (one to each) on many of the living larvae of the bees,
it might certainly, to a casual observer, pass for one of the
family, while entering the bees' nest on its mission of murder
to the infant bees in their cell-cradles. The egg of this
parasite being deposited in the warm folds of the soft skin of
the bee-larva is rapidly hatched, and it at once proceeds to
its unnatural feast, slowly devouring the foster parent whose
breast had warmed it into life; the bee larva being a soft,
legless grub, with no powers of escape, very closely resembling
that of the humble-bee, and indeed of the hive-bee also. The
larva of the Voluceila, with its broad tail, armed with sharp
spines, and its muscular body tapering to the head, and fur-
nished with rigid serrations along each side, forms a striking
contrast to the soft, helpless larva of the bee. Like all the
larvae of the Syrphida, to which the genus Voluceila belongs,

BEES A>-D THEIR COUNTERFEIT*. 11

it is blind ; but, resting attached by the broad tail, it moves
its head rapidly about as a feeler, before changing its position.
The spikes at the tail may be adapted to enable it to raise
itself up the smooth sides of the cell of the bee larva, in case
that one infant bee should prove insufficient, and that it might
require to pass on to the next cradle. But it may be as well
to describe the progress of the parasitic larva on the sup-
position that one baby bee will prove enough for its purpose.
The devoted larva of the bee, then, is gradually eaten alive
by the parasite ; which, with seemingly horrible instinct,
spares all the actually vital parts, taking only the more fleshy
portions, until the carnivorous young Volucella feels itself full
fed and ready to undergo its torpid state of change. Then,
the last remains of the wretched infant bee are greedily con-
sumed, and the parasite passes into its sleepy chrysaline
stage, taking its long siesta in the comfortable cradle whose
infant tenant it has devoured, and from which it eventually
comes boldly forth in all the pride of its winged and perfect
state, walking out of the bee home as from its own proper
abode, and attracting no notice whatever from the bees, in
whose nursery it has performed the odious task of eating a
baby bee, and appropriating its comfortable cradle cell. The
stolid unconsciousness with which the bees allow this insect
vampire to pass out and escape from the scene of his horrid
proceedings with impunity, has induced some naturalists to
believe that the carnivorous Volucella owes its safety to its
complete disguise in the colouring of the bee, which is sup-
posed to be so perfect as to deceive the bees themselves into
the belief that these strangers are members of their own
fraternity. Messrs. Kirby and Spence observe, ' did these
intruders venture themselves among humble-bees in a less
kindred form, their lives would probably pay the forfeit of
their presumption.' This statement, however, though ap-
pearing so plausible, is not borne out by analogy, there being
many parasites on bees which do not bear the slightest re-
semblance to the insects whose nests they invade. Not only
are some of the Diptera, who deposit their eggs in the nests
of bees, very unlike the bees whose homes they infest, but

12 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

even the parasitic bees themselves do not always resemble
the bees whose nests they appropriate. For instance, the
species Eucera longicornis has a broad brownish body, without
any conspicuous mark, while its parasitic relative, Nomada
sex-fasciata, has the narrow body of a wasp, and, as its name
implies, six conspicuous yellow bands on the abdomen, which,
with the intermediate black spaces, make it a very distinct-
looking creature indeed. In some of the exotic bees more
especially, the distinct aspects of the harvesting bee and the
parasite are very striking ; they are, in fact, so much so, that
the insects might be thought to belong to entirely different
families. The beautiful Brazilian bee, Euglossa dimidiata, has
an attendant parasite as totally unlike it as it is possible to
conceive of insects of the same order. Euglossa dimidiata is
one of the most beautifully and variously coloured of the whole
bee tribe." The specimen from which our representation,
No. 3 in the coloured plate of " Bees and their Counterfeits,"
facing the title-page, is taken, " was captured by Mr. Bates,
at Para, in the Brazils ; and it is found in other tropical parts
of South America. Latreille described this handsome species
in Schomberg's Fauna of British Guiana ; but it had been
previously described by Fabricius, from specimens taken at
Cayenne, and named by him Apis dimidiata; subsequent
divisions of the family having rendered another generic name
necessary, this beautiful species was attached to the genus
Euglossa. It forms its nest by boring tubular hollows in
large reeds, and there is a specimen of a reed in the British
Museum bored in this manner by this bee, or by a bee
belonging to a closely allied genus. Into such a tube the
parasite bee penetrates, for the purpose of depositing its egg
in the cells which have been furnished with honey or pollen
by Euglossa dimidiata.

" In this case, in order to support the theory of Messrs.
Kirby and Spence, it would be more than usually necessary
that the intruder should be furnished with a very complete
disguise, as he must, in such a narrow tubular home, neces-
sarily come to very close quarters with the master of the
house. Yet, on the contrary, the whole aspect of the parasite

BEES AND IHEIU COUNTERFEITS. 13

of Euylossa dimidiata is not only extremely different, but its
appearance is of that striking character calculated to excite
immediate attention. Instead of being soft and furry after
the fashion of the humble-bee tribe and their allies, he is
entirely hard, smooth, and glittering — the entire body, thorax
and abdomen, and also the legs, being of a light vivid metallic
green, like that of our rose-beetle. It might be urged, on
the other hand, that, although not provided with a security
in the form of a disguise, a defence of another kind has been
substituted, in the suit of impenetrable plate-armour, of mag-
nificent green bronze, in which this insect is incased. But
I feel convinced that it is entirely futile to attempt to explain
the nature of providential arrangement, and point out the
secret purposes for which either apparent analogies or dis-
crepancies were devised. The best explanations offered,
indeed, are too full of contradictions to be for a moment
seriously accepted as revelations of intended purpose. As a
ready example of the contradictions to which such specu-
lations must be liable, I may mention here, that although the
parasitic bee, which infests the nests of Euylossa dimidiata, is
entirely unlike the harvesting-bee, whose home he invades,
yet the doubly-unfortunate Euglossa has a second enemy, in
the form of a gigantic Diptera, whose similarity to the bee is
most curious. This enormous fly-bee, Asilus fasciatus, has, it
is true, only two wings, but those being of deep brown to
half their length, and transparent for the remainder, bear an
extraordinary general resemblance to those of the bee ; while
the colouring of this handsome insect being nearly identical
with those of the bee, and the size and shape of the markings
being almost identical, the general resemblance becomes very
remarkable ; hence the conspicuous appearance of one enemy
is rendered utterly useless as a defence, while the seemingly
perfect disguise of another apparently favours his fatal entrance
to the nest."

The handsome Xylocopa nigrita (Figs. 1 and 2 in the
coloured plate of " Bees and their Counterfeits ") is a native
of Sierra Leone, and remarkable for the full deep velvety
black of the greater part of the body, while the sides of the

14 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

abdomen are conspicuously fringed, and partly covered, with
milk-white furry hairs ; the effect of which call to mind the
appearance of an aged negro, of the same part of the African
coast, whose woolly hair has become white with age. The
legs, also, are thickly fringed on one side with a similar
white fur, and the face is white, with large brown eyes. The
wings are nearly opaque, and of deep dull purple, with a
metallic gloss, bronzy-red towards the extremities. The
Diptera, or two-winged counterpart of this insect (Fig. 5 in
the coloured plate), " has all the characteristic contrasts of
black and white, similarly disposed, even to the white face
and brown eyes ; while the opaque, iridescent wings are pre-
cisely similar in tone and colour. The somewhat longer legs,
the single pair of wings, and the different structure of the
antennas, at once prove to the entomologist that these two
insects are not only not the same, but that they belong even
to different t orders.' They are, however, in all probability,
found together, like the other bees and Diptera which so
strongly resemble each other — the larva of the Diptera, no
doubt, preying upon the larva of the bee. In proof of this
hypothesis, it may be stated that both specimens were brought
to England from the west coast of Africa, the bee from Sierra
Leone, the bee-fly from Port Natal, and probably both will
eventually be found in the same district. The bee exhibits,
in an unusual degree, a peculiarity common to many of the
family, namely, a marked difference in the general aspect of
the two sexes." The other exotic bees figured in the coloured
plate are from South America.

Some of the most beautiful of the exotic bees are parasites
and produce neither honey nor pollen ; but it is probable
that some of these may hereafter be found to have been in-
correctly classed as parasites, and be proved to be honey
collectors; for the absence of the large flattened hollo win the
tibia or middle joint of the hind leg, which appears to be
absolutely necessary to the honey carrier, is not proof positive
of parasitism, for among Andrenidw, the genus Prosopis,
although without the usual apparatus for collecting honey,
has nevertheless been recently proved to be a honey pro-

BEES AND THEIR COUNTEKFEITS. 15

dueer, filmy cells containing liquid honey having been found
in its nest, which has been discovered formed of tubes in the
main stem of the bramble ; and that indefatigable entomolo-
gical observer, Mr. F. Smith, the well-known author of the
British Museum Catalogue of Hymenoptera, having watched
a specimen of the genus Sphecodes of the sub-family Acuti-
Hnyues while in the act of forming its burrow, discovered that
it was a pollen producer, although without the usual organs
for carrying the pollen.

" Some of the exotic bees," says Mr. Noel Humphreys,
11 are almost as richly coloured as the more gaudy butterfly
tribe, and at the same time are of such conspicuous size as
must render them very remarkable objects, winging their
rapid and always musical passage among the exuberant vege-
tation of the tropics. A thoughtful spectator seeing for the
first time in their native wilds these gigantic and magnifi-
cently tinted bees, robbing the nectaries of tropic flowers of
sweets whose mere perfume seems almost too delicious, could
scarcely forbear picturing to himself the produce of unknown
kinds of honey, of a luscious sweetness and exquisite flavour,
as yet undreamed of. If (he might reflect) those mean little
plants of wild thyme, trailing their humble stems among the
scanty herbage of our bleak northern hills, can yield delicious
honey to that poor little brown gatherer, the old hive-bee,
what may one naturally expect to be the result of honey-
gathering by such a noble race of bees as these of the tropics,
and with such exquisite flowers to gather from ! Such might
easily be conceived to" be the exclamation of an observer of
the flight of bees among the gorgeous plants in one of the
natural gardens of some intertropical valley ; and he would
think of those bees mentioned by Amer which make natural
hives of the cavities of rocks, laying up honey in large
pouches, or cells, of the size of a pigeon's egg, and which,
being dark coloured, and hanging to the sides of the hive in
clusters, look like bunches of delicious grapes, containing, in
fact, a juice far more sweet. He might think also of what
Clavigero, the Spanish historian of Mexico, says of a bee,
evidently of a nearly allied species, which abounds in Yucatan,

1C) CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

and produces the famous honey of Estabentiem, the finest in
the world, which is said to be taken from the bees every
two months. These bees are, however, small inconspicuous
creatures, evidently belonging to the same group as our own
honey hive-bee, though distinguished from it by being sting-
less. The most magnificent bees are, on the other hand, not
of the true honey kind. They belong principally to the class
of solitary bees, including a few of the humble-bee class and
their relatives. These last, though it is true that many of
them of the i social ' kinds do collect honey, yet manipulate
it in a very inferior manner to that of the hive-bee. Other
kinds only collect pollen, which, being exclusively intended as
food for the young larvaB, is generally rolled into little balls
or pills, one being placed in each of the cells in which an egg
is to be deposited."

The truly magnificent insect, Xylocopa nobilis (Fig. 6) was
captured by Mr. Wallis, in the island of Celebes, an almost
unknown collecting ground, from which we may expect to
obtain many other new and splendid additions to our cabinets
of exotic insects. Its body is of the richest conceivable
velvet black, with a rich brown bloom upon it ; this deep
ground colour being banded with transverse stripes of the
richest gold colour, the two central stripes producing a pecu-
liarly bright and sparkling effect from their extreme narrow-
ness. The wings are semi-opaque, and their colour modulates
from a deep indigo-violet in the centre to a rich bronzy green
at the extremities, the violet becoming nearly crimson where
the wings join the body.

A new species from India (No. 5, not yet named, in the
second coloured plate) is perhaps even more beautiful ; for
though the usually slender and elongated body is entirely
black, the wings exhibit the most gorgeous iridescent colours
that can be imagined. They are of a reddish tawny bronze
at the ends, getting redder towards the centre, where the red
suddenly but softly blends into a rich metallic green, followed
by a portion of rich deep blue, which in its turn becomes
violet at the base of the wings.

Centris flavopict.a (No. 1, in the second coloured plate) is

BEES AND THEIR COUNTERFEITS. 17

one of the many fine insects brought from the banks of the
river Amazon, and is so called from the subdued yellow tone
of the abdomen and legs, the latter being finely painted or
marked with dark brown.

Oxcea flavescens (Fig. 2) is a remarkably brilliant insect, to
which no engraving or painting can do adequate justice.
The abdomen is of metallic orange of the greatest richness,
but entirely without gloss, striped across with bauds of pale
glittering yellow, which have the appearance of positive
bands of the most highly burnished pale gold.

Euglossa analis (Fig. 3) is one of the pretty and gaily-
coloured small bees of the Brazilian forests, which have often
been described ; but few of the more recently discovered
species surpass this specimen in brilliant metallic tinting.

Euglossa Brullei (Fig. 8) is another species of the same
genus.

Euglossa violacea (Fig. 7) is so well known that it would not
have been included in our plate, but for the tempting contrast
which its rich violet offered to the orange and yellow tones of
the other specimens.

But the most beautiful as well as the largest of this genus,
is the exquisite Brazilian insect Euglossa pulclira (Fig. 4), so
named by Mr. F. Smith. The most highly finished engraving
would do but scanty justice to its beauty. The colour of the
face is rich metallic apple-green, contrasting finely with the
ruddy brown of the large eyes. The thorax is of the finest
velvety purple, appearing of a deep black in the parts which
do not receive a direct light. The two upper segments of the
abdomen are of a bright red-violet, inclining to crimson ; the
remaining segments being of a vivid metallic straw colour,
resembling the colour of electrum, or gold paled by an ad-
mixture of silver, a natural combination anciently found in
the sands of the celebrated river Pactolus, and from which
some of the most ancient gold money of Sardis was coined.

18 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY,

BEITISH AND FOREIGN BEETLES.

THE term Beetle has frequently been used as the name
common to the species of the family Scambceida, but it is
more commonly and properly used to designate those insects
which are covered by a strong horny substance, the abdominal
part of the body being protected by two sheaths under which
the wings are folded. Hence the term is synonymous with
Coleoptera. No form of animal life has attracted the attention
of naturalists more constantly, and proved more generally
instructive, than that of insects ; and " among these," says
Mr. Noel Humphreys, " the beetle tribe especially were
noticed by the ancients at a very early period, from two very
opposite points of view — superstition and philosophy. With
the sacerdotal naturalists of Egypt, who had carefully ob-
served the habits and transformations of the Beetle, that
insect became a symbol of the principle of metempsychosis,
and other theological dogmas ; while with the Greeks, in the
hands of Aristotle, it became an example of one of the acutest
methods of classification, founded on anatomical structure,
that science ever devised, Finding that the whole of the
beetle family were furnished with wings protected by a
sheath-like covering, he compounded of the word \o\toc, a
scabbard or case, and TTTtpa, wings — a term which is still
generally applied by naturalists to the entomological order
comprising the beetles. It is true that some of the insects
included by Aristotle in his great family of Coleoptera, have
been removed by modern science to other natural orders ; but
the great distinctive feature, as a class definition, and also the
very name by which the father of natural history distinguished
it, are both retained in the natural philosophy of modern

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BEETLES. 19

times, no better character or name having been found for the
order of insects to which they were originally applied by the
Macedonian entomologist of two and twenty centuries ago.
More than one among our modern naturalists have sought to
alter the venerable term invented by the founder of their
science, but none of their suggestions have been permanently
adopted."

During the winter months, when the more generally attrac-
tive classes of insects are but rarely to be met with, the
entomologist may still seek with success for several kinds of
beetles, which may be found under large loose stones, or
beneath flakes of dead bark, or in the shelter of matted clumps
of moss.

Our native beetles are not so conspicuous in their forms, or
so finely coloured as those which attracted the attention of
Aristotle in the fine climate of Greece ; but there are many
among them of considerable beauty, and in fact our native
species of Cicindelidce are not surpassed by their near relatives
in the more southern parts of Europe, and are scarcely
inferior in beauty to some of their intertropical cousins with
which we shall compare them.

The commonest, and at the same time the prettiest, of the
British species of Cicindela, is the well-known C. campettris
(Fig. 6), an elegant and active little green beetle, with yellowish
spots, that may be found in sandy districts on any fine sunny
day of early spring. This species has long been known to
collectors as the Tiger Beetle, being so named, as some say,
from its spots and stripes; but as others assert, from its car-
nivorous nature, preying as it does upon other insects, and
occasionally even upon its own species. They were also
called " sparklers " by the old collectors, from their brilliant
aspect when the sun shines upon them, especially during the
short but rapid flight which they indulge in during sunshine,
particularly when alarmed, when they make a humming noise
like bees. M. Desmarets was the first to observe the method
pursued by the larva? of Tiger Beetles for capturing their
prey. They construct, as he informs us, a narrow tunnel or
pit of the depth of about eight or ten inches perpendicularly,

^0 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

sometimes more than a foot deep, according to the nature of
the earth in which it is formed, which is generally sand.
When complete, they climb to the mouth of the tunnel, making
their broad flat head, which they cover with sand, form a kind
of trap-door to this treacherous oubliette. They sustain them-
selves in the desired position by means of two hook-like
appendages, till a small insect passes over the living trap-door
concealed by a treacherous layer of sand, when the larva
immediately allows itself to drop to the bottom of the burrow,
followed of course by the tumbling victim, who is speedily
devoured. If the insect passing over the trap is too large to
fall readily into the tunnel, it is seized as it passes, and
dragged forcibly down to its destruction in the dark pitfall.
Nothing is known of thelarvse of exotic Cicindela, but Latreille
considers that in all probability they resemble, both in form
and habits, those of the European species. The female of
C. campestris may be distinguished from the male by the
presence of two additional buff spots. C. Germanica is another
British species, and also C. hybrida, of which last there is a
specimen in the collection of the Linnaean Society, with the
name in the handwriting of Linn sens himself.

Cidndella Chinensis (Fig. 7), an exquisitely beautiful species,
is one of the most common insects of the tea-growing districts,
and is often found in chests of tea imported into this country.
It is a curious fact that, while none of the tropical species
materially surpass our own either in form or colour, this
remarkably handsome insect, inhabiting a climate very similar
in general temperature to our own, far exceeds our C. campestris
both in size and beauty. Our representation will give a fair
general idea of the beauty of this finest of the exotic Cicin-
delidce, but no painting can perfectly imitate the richness and
at the same time the extreme delicacy of its colouring.
Exquisitely clouded markings of deep purple, rich in tone
and texture as tinted velvet, form the chief feature of the
colouring ; these masses of purple shading off at the edges
into the rich apple-green which forms the general ground,
the green becoming in places nearly a silvery azure, and this
green ground being again varied by conspicuous marks of

B1UTISII AND FOHEIGN BEETLES. 21

delicate buff; the central ridges of the elytra being also of a
buff tone, with a metallic gloss of gold.

Though exceedingly numerous, our native species of the
extensive order CurcuUonidcB are all small and insignificant,
while the exotic genera of this tribe contain many of the
most splendid insects yet known. For instance, Otiorhynchw
ligustri (Fig. 1), the common Curculio of the Privet, is of a
dull olive brown colour, with the tuberculatkms of the elytra
rather paler, and has no pretensions to beauty except perhaps
its general elegance of form, while his foreign relatives are
not only more than four times the size of our native kinds,
but their splendour of colour often equals, if it does not
surpass, that of the whole insect world. The Eupliolus
Schonherrii (Fig. 7) forms perhaps the most remarkable con-
trast among exotic species to our native Curculios, both in
size and beauty. This magnificent insect was discovered in
the island of Celebes, by the officers of " I«a Coqtiille," the
French ship of discovery that circumnavigated the world in
1833. The first specimen of this then unknown relative of
the Curcidios was taken at a little seaport of Celebes, called
Dory, one of the hottest parts of that intertropical region, and
which, in the general account of the voyage, is described as
swarming with resplendent insects of various kinds ; and it
was eventually placed in the collection of M. Chevrolat.
M. Guerin, describing it for the zoological section of the
voyage of " La Coquille," made it the type of a new genus,
which he called Eupholus, from the Greek words cv, fair, and
0oXir, a scale, in allusion to the powdery bloom, similar to
the minute scales of the wings of butterflies, with which its
elytra are covered ; which term was adopted by Boisduval
when he described other allied species discovered in the
voyage of the " Astrolabe." The representation in the plate
can L>ive but a faint idea of this subdued metallic kind of

G

lustrous bloom, but the general distribution of colour is well
represented. M. Guerin describes the ground colour as being
of a lovely glaucous green, slightly metallic, the corslet
being brilliant azure, passing off imperceptibly to a delicate
green at the edges ; the wing-cases having transverse stripes

22 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

of deep velvety black, and the space comprised between the
first and second pair of stripes, and between the third and
fourth, being a fine light blue. The specimen in the British
Museum, sent from Celebes by our enterprising collector,
Mr.Wallis, does not entirely agree in colour with M. Guerin's
description. " This may be accounted for,'7 says Mr. Noel
Humphreys, " by the colours having changed or faded in
dead specimens, or from the specimens in M. Chevrolat's col-
lection, or the one in the Museum, being a variety. The
colours of the large specimen in the British Museum, and
also of several smaller specimens, are as follow : — The head,
ochreous green, with deep brown stripe; the corslet,/ a bril-
liant lilac, becoming pink in high light, and changing to
green towards the edges ; the elytra are of a bluer lilac, and
have five transverse bars of black, the spaces between the
first and second bar and the third and fourth being a greenish
white, which contrasts very delicately with the blue lilac of
the other portions of the wing-cases ; the legs are brilliant
metallic green, with the exception of the joints, which are of
a rich purplish azure and very brilliant ; the antennae are
of a delicate cinereous green, with brown tips. I believe the
largest specimen in the Museum is marked as a variety ; but
as there are several specimens exactly like it, except in size,
our specimens may prove to be distinct species." Several
other species of this new genus have since been discovered,
some at the same port, Dory, and other parts of New Guinea,
and the adjacent islands during the subsequent voyages of
the " Astrolabe " and the " Zelee," all magnificent insects,
with green and blue elytra finely striped with black bands,
but all of inferior size and beauty to the original type of the
genus, which, in its turn, is inferior to the variety or new
species in the British Museum.

Another genus of exotic Ctirculionidre, the species of which
form a striking contrast with our native kinds, on account of
their great brilliancy, is principally founded on the beautiful
insects of this class from the Philippine Islands, which were
procured a few years ago by Mr. Cuming, an English mer-
chant residing at Lima, and trading from thence to the

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BEETLES. 23

Philippines : all of them were till then unknown to European
naturalists. For the classification of these insects, M. Germar
first established the genus Pachyrliynchus, formed of the Greek
word Traxoe, thick, and pvyx«c, a beak or bill, from the thick
elongation of the head, as distinct in character from that of
the European Otiorhynchus. The new name was first given
to a single species which was at that time commonly re-
ceived from Manilla, being the only species then known.
MM. Eydoux and Souleyet met with and described another
species from the same place in 1839. But these were nothing
to the wonderful collection of this glittering Curculian group
brought to Europe by Mr. Cuming in 1840, which astonished
the entomological world with their novelty and splendour.
Erom among those purchased of Mr. Cuming by the trustees
of the British Museum we have given three in our plate,
namely, P. gemmatus (Fig. 4), P. speciosus (Fig. 5), and
P. reticulatus (Fig. 6). P. gemmatus is by far the largest and
most splendid ; and, although sufficiently splendid to the un-
assisted eye, it is only in the microscope that all the mag-
nificence of its details can be fully observed and appreciated ;
for its splendours are of that minute character which cannot
be exhibited in a drawing unless greatly magnified, and even
then the glitter of the metallic effects could not be pourtrayed.
The ground colour is a rich crimson maroon, with a golden
gloss in the high lights. But the large spots, which have the
appearance of being inlaid with a variety of gems, form the
chief feature. In the centre of each of these gemmed circlets
the inlaid colours appear to be composed of minute triangles
of turquoise and emeralds, with granules of silver between,
while towards the margin the emerald disappears, and the
mixture is blue and yellow, with a larger admixture of the
granules of silver, the whole surface being so brilliantly
polished that each minute gem is distinctly seen. The pretty
P. tpeciosus and P. reticulatus (Figs. 5 and 6) are also beautiful
insects, from the excessive clearness of their markings and the
high polish of their entire surface.

The native species, Carabus intricatns (Fig. 8), which has
received its specific name from the intricacy of the tubercula-

24 CURIOSITIES OF 'ENTOMOLOGY.

tions by which the surface of the elytra are variegated, was so
rare a very few years ago that some considered it not truly
indigenous; but it has since been captured in some numbers,
in consequence of the discovery that moths were attracted by
melted sugar brushed on the bark of trees at night, which
happened to prove equally attractive to our night-roaming
beetle, Carabus intrwatus, and numbers were taken by the
newly discovered bait. The "golden beetle," Carabus auratus,
belongs to the same genus, and is perhaps the handsomest of
the native Carabi. This species, like many of the Car obi, is
carnivorous, and is called by the French Le Jardinier, as the
enemy of cockchafers. It attacks the female when in the act
of depositing her eggs, and so destroys at once a whole brood
of those destructive insects. The Carabidce, which are carni-
vorous, thus feed on other beetles which are herbaceous feeders,
just as carnivorous quadrupeds prey upon those that are
herbivorous.

The Carabus Hispanus (Fig. 9) is not indebted to a tropical
sun for his superior brilliancy; for, on the contrary, his
habitat is on the borders of eternal snow, in the Alpine
regions of Central Europe. In the first place he is nearly
twice the size of our native Carabi, but the size is his least
attraction. It is in his brilliant metallic colours that his
great beauty chiefly consists. The head and corslet are of the
richest metallic purple, while the elytra, or wing-cases, are of
the most dazzling olive gold, so solidly brilliant that chased
and burnished metal itself could not surpass it. In the lights
this golden glitter becomes a yellow, while in the shades it
assumes a ruddy tone, becoming richly crimson in a narrow

channel round the edges.

MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA,
(Leaf- Miners.)

1. — Cemiostoma scitella. Hawthorn and Pear.
2.— Cemipstoma laburnclla. laburnum.
3.— Nepticula aurella. Blackberry.
4.— Nepticula trimaculella. Poplar.
5.— Nepticula Subbimaculella. Oak.
6.— Nepticula Anomalella Rose-leaf.
7.— Lithocolletis stettinensis. Alder.
8.— Tischeria marginea. Bramble.
All these figures are highly magnified.

9.— Glyphipteryx equitella. Stonccrnp.
10. — Elachista luticomella. Daati/lis (ilomc
11. — Ochsenheimc'ria. Dactulis glomerata.
12.-Gelechia Malvella.* HoUi/hack
13.— Cerostoma Xj'lostella. Honeysuckle.
14. — Gelechia Hcrmanella. Chcnopodium.
15. — Head of Ochsenheimeria.
16.— Coriscium. Oak.

The natural size is given in the lines beneath each, or in
a minute figure.

17. -Examples of different larva mines, a, mine of Nepticula aurella on the BramMc. b, mine of
the Nepticula anomalella on the Rose-leaves, c, mine of Nepticula viscerella on the Elm. d, mine
of Nepticula marginicolella on the Elm.

THE MICKO-LEPIDQPTERA, OK LEAF-MINERS.

THE MICKO-LEPIDOPTEKA, OK LEAF-MINEKS.

BUT few observers have devoted any attention to these
interesting moths, although of such beautiful hues and metallic
lustre, glorious as the Admiral and Peacock butterflies in the
variety and richness of their colouring, whilst in their instincts
they are as wonderful as any of their larger brethren.
Messrs. Stainton, Zeller, and Douglas, who have applied
themselves to the study of these minute Lepidoptera, have
recorded their researches in magnificent volumes almost un-
attainable to ordinary lovers of entomology. In our plate
we give representations of our commonest leaf-miners, highly
magnified, the natural size being indicated by minute figures
or by lines beneath ; and in this chapter we shall describe
them and their haunts and habits to assist the young student
in his research.

" It was one of the wonders of my childhood," says
Mrs. Lane Clarke, " what the hieroglyphics upon primrose,
bramble, and rose leaves could possibly mean. I saw a white
winding stream meandering along with a dark wavy line in
the centre, "beginning at a mere speck and swelling into a
broad river, then suddenly ending. Holding a rose leaf to
the light, one day, there was life within that winding way, a
sheltered, naked little worm sustained in the narrow channel
between the upper and lower cuticle of the leaf; food, safety,
warmth, all provided within the limits of the rose-leaf mine.
Picking open the upper skin and finding a small green cater-
pillar, curious to know its metamorphosis, and failing to
preserve the larvae in the gathered leaves, I bethought me of
muslin bags, which I tied over the twigs of rose trees and
brambles, laburnums and lilacs, which were the first mined

26 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

and rolled leaves I had observed ; and great was my joy when
from these pages of nature's own book I first learnt the
mysteries of the microscopic moths. Every folded leaf is in
truth the habitation of the larva of a minute Lepidoptera,
and beneath the leaf a blotch, a pucker, or a tiny tent, will, if
watched, produce one of these beautiful objects. Scientifically
they are divided into leaf-miners, leaf-rollers, tent-makers,
and burrowers in the stems of the plant whereon they feed.
Not all leaf-miners produce Lepidoptera, for several of the
Diptera begin life in the same way. The primrose, whose
leaves are often covered with irregular, fantastic markings,
feeds the larvae of a small, striped, greyish black fly with
yellow legs (Phytomyza primula). The thistle is mined by a
yellow and black fly (Phytomyza sonchi). The turnip and pea
by the little yellow Drasophila. The plantain, ranunculus,
stellaria, lychnis, chenopodium, and silene, are all mined by
Phytomyzides. The iris, verbascum, euphorbia, by Agromyzides,
very minute black or black and yellow flies, some of them
with bright red eyes, but so small as to be really microscopic ;
not one line in expansion, yet sad devastators in the garden
are they."

But the larva of a Diptera may always be distinguished
from that of the Lepidoptera, at least under the microscope,
by the absence of feet in the dipterous larva, and the presence,
however minute or rudimentary, of these organs in the lepi-
dopterous larva. Sometimes, it is true, the undeveloped
condition of the true legs, and the absence in all leaf-miners
of the coronet of hooks upon the pro-legs, or membranous
feet on the hinder segments of the body, may cause a doubt,
as it did in the mind of the great naturalist De Geer, when
on finding the rose-leaf miner and examining the larvae, he
wrote: — "After examining their figure and the conformation
of some of their parts, one would only take them to be vers
or dipterous larvae, because they have eighteen legs, all mem-
branous and alike in form, exactly like the legs of Fausses-
chenilles, or larva? of saw-flies ; that is to say, without the
coronet of hooks which distinguishes the true caterpillars. I
thought therefore at first that these were a new species of

THE MICRO-LEriDOPTERA, OR LEAF-MINERS. 27

dipterous larvae. Sometimes I was inclined to consider them
the lame of saw-flies, but as they had no horny legs, it
seemed to me that they could not belong to these insects.
In fact, I persisted in the opinion that my leaf-miners were
dipterous larva?, till they assumed their last form — till they
showed me that they changed into true moths." It was of
the rose-leaf miner (Xepticula anomella, Fig. 6) that De Geer
wrote thus, and it renders the species particularly interesting
when we know that it was the first of the miners which
attracted his particular attention, and subsequently led our
own naturalists, Westwood and Stainton, to the study of the
3Iicro-Lepidoptera. The little moth itself is frequently found
on our windows in the early spring, the dark grey or bronzy
wings tipped with violet, and silvery grey under-wings, deeply
fringed with delicate cilia, or minute moving organs resem-
bling hairs. All these microscopic moths are remarkable for
the extraordinary size of their scales, and many of them for
the rich metallic lustre, iridescent as the scales of a diamond
beetle.

Cemiostoma sdtella (Fig. 1) is a lovely microscopic moth,
which those who live in or near London will find no difficulty
in watching during its development and securing specimens of,
for the larva is abundant in July and August, disfiguring the
leaves of hawthorn, apple, and pear, with irregular flat brown
blotches, and if we hold one of the leaves to the light, the
little miner may be seen feeding busily. Also upon a still
evening, or on the sheltered side of a hedge, we find in the
month of June numbers of the small grey moths creeping
slowly about the leaves depositing eggs. Their minute size
renders the exceeding beauty of their wings indiscernible to
the naked eye, and it is difficult to mount them without
ruffling their delicate wings. This is just one of those sur-
prises which an observant mind obtains, when in a mere dot
of life such elaborate finish and perfection is discovered. A
little creeping ashen-grey moth spreads a pair of upper wings
clothed with feathery scales, that require the utmost power of
human skill in microscopic lenses to investigate. On the
membrane of this wing, which has a definite tracery of veins

28 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

marking the species, there are rows of cup-like sockets into
which each tiny scale is fitted securely for the insect's flight,
but which will not bear the coarse touch of human fingers.
These scales, invisible to the naked eye, are composed of three
distinct laminae, two external and coloured, the inner one a
highly polished colourless membrane, which reflects the light
and increases the brilliancy of each scale. The wing of this
little Cemiostoma, shining with the silvery grey mass of
microscopic feathers, has a large black spot with violet eye,
and streaks of purest white, and deepest black, radiating off
into the long silken fringe that is so remarkably beautiful in
all these moths. The egg, strangely large for the size of the
moth, is laid on the tinder side of a leaf, and the larva, as soon
as hatched, bores through the cuticle and eats away a cavern
in the parenchyma or cellular tissue, which daily spreads into
a large blotch, brown at first but afterwards white, with
markings of black in half circles, which is the excrement of
the worm as it works from side to side. When full fed it
comes out at the upper side of the leaf, and spins a pretty
white cocoon, leaving a slit at one end, through which it rejects
the cast-off skin when assuming the pupa state, and by which
the little moth eventually comes forth.

Cemiostoma laburnella (Fig 2) is a delicate white moth,
with violet pupil on its wings, and should be mounted on a
blue disc, for then the dark radiating streaks in the cilia will
be more distinctly seen.

There is another moth, Cemiostoma spartifolia, which mines
the tuig, not the leaf, of the common broom, and so like the
Laburnella that only a practised eye can discern the slightest
difference, although there is invariably one slight variation
marking its individuality, for the wing of C. laburnella has
three parallel lines passing from the second yellow dot through
the cilia, while the wing of C. spartifolia has three convening
strokes from the same dot. Two broods in the year spoil our
laburnum leaves in appearance, but not in reality ; for
although the little insect feeds upon the pulp of the leaf, the
veins or channels of the sap are not injured, and the
tree itself does not suffer in vitality, at least to any great

THE MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA, OR LEAF-MINERS. 2*J

degree. The first brood come forth from the mine in July to
spin cocoons, and fasten them to branches of the tree ; but
the second brood in October descend by little silken ropes,
and hide themselves amongst dead leaves, spinning pure white
cocoons, firm and warm, wherein to sleep securely through
the long winter.

Nepticula aurella (Fig. 3) is the most minute of all the
Micro-Lepidoptera, and the most easily observed, as it mines
our rose leaves and brambles, but is by no means easy to
catch, for it runs writh wonderful rapidity. Though it may
be found at rest on palings or trunks of trees, yet it is
wary, flits off at an approach, and the delicate wings will be
damaged by the sweep of a net ; and it is, therefore, better to
breed specimens by collecting the cocoons, or enclosing a
bramble branch in a muslin bag. The cocoons are always
found in groups of about twenty, though the larvse are quite
solitary in their spinning and feeding.

Nepticula triuiaculella (Fig. 4) is a pretty spotted moth,
which may be found resting on the trunks of oak trees in all
parts of England, about May and June. The larva, which is
green and shining, with a reddish head, and red dorsal vessel,
pulsating visibly under the microscope, mines oak leaves in a
blotch about an inch long, close to the mid-rib, from which it
issues to spin a pale, yellow, mussel-shaped cocoon. The
Neptkulcv always mine the upper side of leaves, except this
species, which is sometimes found on the under side.

Nepticula sub-btmaculella (Fig. 5) is another little oak-
miner, but producing only one brood, is only in the larva
state in October, making a triangular blotch in an angle
between the mid-rib and one of the veins of the leaf. The
egg having been laid on the upper side of the leaf close to the
mid-rib, the larva keeps very close to the rib, leaving a thick,
black, central line of excrement ; after which it turns about
and eats out a blotch, in which, as it grows, the excrement is
deposited in grains ; from which observations it appears that
the excrement is always fluid in the early stage of larva life,
and becomes solid as the digestive organs develop.

anomalella (Fig. 6) is the little moth that attracted

30 CU1UOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

the notice of De Geer. Specimens can be readily found upon
rose trees in July and October, mining in serpentine galleries
the under side of the leaf, but coming out at the upper side,
and spinning a cocoon at the footstalk of a leaf, or under a
projecting thorn. There is another leaf-miner on the rose, N.
Anguli-fasdella, much prettier, having dark wings, and a
curved silver band across; and in the larva state they may be
distinguished by the Anomale.lla being amber-coloured, and
the other of a pale green. Three or four of these little miners
are often found on the same leaf, in which case they cross
each other's path, and make the tracing of a single mine rather
difficult.

Lithocolletis stetinensis (Argijromiyes] (Fig. 7) is a beautiful
moth, one of a family containing seventy species,, so delicately
small, and yet so brilliant, that naturalists have called them the
humming-birds of the Lepidoptera. The Iarva3 are extremely
abundant on the elm, maple, honeysuckle, scabious, oak, and
nut trees. Some species mine the upper and some the lower
cuticle of a leaf. It is found that the larva of a Lithocolletis
never quits its mine, but changes therein to a pupa ; and the
empty pupa-skin may be found protruding from a slit in the
cuticle after the escape of the perfect insect. The Nepticulce
always emerge from the mine, and fix themselves to a stalk or
a dead leaf for transformation. There is but one exception,
and that is with Ncpticula septembrella, which mines the
leaves of Hypericum pulchrum (small upright St. John's
wort) in autumn, making extremely slender mines around
and across the small leaves ; when full fed, they pucker
the leaf a little, and form a cocoon inside the mine. Again,
the larva of a Lithoeolletis more or less contorts the leaf,
which Nepticula does not, and carpets the loosened cuticle
with silk, pulling it so tight that not only does the skin
pucker, but the opposite side of the leaf is drawn into a
curve.

TiscJieria margined (Fig. 8), a pretty moth, may be seen in
May and August flitting over the brambles, or, as in the
plate, sitting with folded wrings, closely pressed to the sub-
stance upon which it rests, with its head slightly raised, and

THE MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA, OR LEAF-MINERS. 31

long antennae thrown forward. The bright yellow dot of life
is absorbed in the work of depositing its eggs on the under side
of the blackberry leaves, which will soon have the tracery of
a little mine, resembling a cornucopia, and puckered at the
widest part because the Tischeria does not quit that shelter,
but changes to a pupa in its mine. Side by side we may
observe the more wavy and intricate hieroglyphic of the Nep-
ticula, and compare the larva. The moth is four lines long.

GlypMpteryx equitella is not a leaf-miner, but a burrower,
and with a truly microscopic beauty, for the exquisite mark-
ings of its wings are never well seen except with a pocket lens
or a three-inch object-glass. The dark bronzy-grey ground
is streaked with pure white, edged with silver ; two violet-
silvery spots in the middle, and another at the tip, near which
a hook of jet-black scales project through the cilia. This
moth flies over the stonecrop in June, where it deposits the
eggs, from whence a little miner comes forth to plunge into
the stem, and work away in a channel through which it revels
in the ascending sap.

Elachista luticomella (Fig. 10), though but little known till
recently, may be seen in swarms on summer evenings hovering
over their favourite DactyUs glomerata, or Cocksfoot-grass,
which feeds the young larvae. Stainton names forty species of
the grass-miners, which, when full grown, quit the mine, and
attach themselves to the stem of a neighbouring plant. They
fix their bodies by a silken belt like the cabbage caterpillar,
and change to an angulated pupa,

Ochsenheimeria (Fig. 11) is properly not a microscopic moth,
for it is from five to six lines in expansion, and not particu-
larly beautiful ; but the head (Fig. 15) is most curious, and
deserves observation. Its feathered antennae and bird-like
eyes are unlike all other moths. It can be caught only in the
hottest part of the day, from 12 A.M. to 2 P.M., when it hops
about the grass, depositing eggs on the Dactylu glomerata. It
is marvellously quick in hiding away, and if not swept into
the net whilst on the wing, will not be easily secured.

The Gelechidw have varied habits, for the larvae of many of
them feed between the united leaves of sallows, honeysuckle,

62 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

firs, oaks, and apple trees. G. malcella (Fig. 12) devours the
seeds of the hollyhock ; but G. hermanella (Fig. 14) is a true
leaf-miner. The larvae make dirty green blotches on the
leaves of the Chenopodium, or Fat-hen, and Atriplex, and the
moth, flitting over these plants in July and October, is of a
bright orange red, flaked with silvery streaks, and set off
by jet-black scales. These moths are scarcely microscopic,
being from six to nine lines in expansion.

Cerastoma xylostella (Fig. 13) measures ten lines across the
outstretched wings, yet it belongs to the Micro-Lepidoptera,
and its larva, bright green, with scarlet stripe along its back,
will in July be feeding on the honeysuckle.

The beautiful plumed head of the Ochsenheimeria (Fig. 15),
and the head of Coriscium (Fig. 16), an oak-leaf miner, plen-
tiful in April, June, August, and September, with drooping
and tufted palpi, show us the minute yet decided variations
which mark the species.

Examples of different larva mines are represented in Fig. 17.
" Pondering on the hieroglyphics these little miners trace,"
says Mrs. Lane Clarke, " words of infinite wisdom to the eye
that can read and the heart that can understand ; seeing how
in darkness yet perfect security the naked worm feeds, grows,
and develops a new and wondrous beauty of which it is
wholly unconscious, and of which for thousands of years man
was profoundly ignorant; we pause reverently before the
tracery on a rose leaf, the blotch on the laburnum, and we
look beyond the present mystery of our own life, oftentimes a
dark and a winding way, with a hope strengthened in looking
at the glorious wings of the hitherto scarcely appreciated
Microscopic Moth."

COLEOPHORA, (Tent-makers.)

THE COLEOPHORA, OR TENT-MAKERS. 33

THE COLEOPHORA, OK TENT-MAKERS.

THE Coleophora are a genus of the Micro-Lepidoptera.
The moths are not nearly so beautiful as the Nepticulce and
Lithocolletis described in the preceding chapter. Their wings
are lanceolated, or shaped like a lance, of one colour, or
striped with silken grey under-wings, and they sit with bodies
closely pressed to the substance on which they rest, with
their antennee thrown forward, much like the Tisclierice.
But the larva? of this genus manifest an instinct and design
which open for us a delightful field of observation. They
feed upon the parenchyma or cellular tissue of leaves, and
mine irregular blotches as they feed ; but with the cuticle, or
leaf itself, or husk of seed, they fashion tents, under which
they walk about, and within which they retire when the time
of pupa rest has come, and the resurrection into perfect life is
at hand.

The Coleophora may be collected from June to October.
When you find a blotched or mined leaf with a round hole,
as truly outlined as if drilled with a centre-bit, you may be
sure that a Coleophora has been feeding there, and this little
hole was the entrance into its pasture-ground, covered closely
by its tent, whilst the owner penetrated into the soft, juicy
parenchyma, and stretched away, as far as its body would
reach, on all sides, careful only to keep its anal hooks at the
tent-door to secure a retreat on the least alarm.

" These tiny caterpillars," says Mrs. Lane Clarke, "scarcely
noticed by the unassisted eye, are wonderful in their instinct,
as the Lithocolletis are marvellous in their beauty. Here is
a mere speck, a little brown naked worm, busy on the leaf
before me ; nothing can be more insignificant in appearance,

D

34 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

or more unworthy of minute attention ; hardly does the care-
less eye perceive it, and yet how the detail of its structure
reveals the mind of its Great Creator; the same wisdom
planning, and the same goodness adapting, each organ for
the tiny workman that has given to man his more perfect
body. Look closely at the larva itself before we describe its
proceedings. Externally we observe a small black head, with
six simple eyes in a circle on each side, a pair of sharp-
toothed jaws, four little palps or feelers, and a spinnaret
immediately under the jaws; six true legs and ten mem-
branous appendages, thirteen joints or segments, and on each
segment a spiracle dilating and contracting as the larva
breathes and moves. At the anal segment there is a pro-
tuberance, armed with hooks, which it uses as a claw to
attach itself to the leaf whilst making its case, and afterwards
as a grappling-iron to retain possession of its tenement."

The preparation of the Cossus ligniperda, or Goat-Moth, by
Mr. Robertson, in the Oxford Museum, in illustration of
Lyonnet's researches, proves the existence of 4,061 muscles
in that caterpillar, 228 being attached to the head, 1,647 to
the body, and 2,186 to the intestines. This is one of the
largest of the British Moths, measuring from tip to tip of the
wings when expanded from 3 inches to 3|. The larva Avhen
full grown is about 3 inches in length ; and when we con1-
sider that " we have no reason whatever for denying the
same number of muscular bands to the smallest larva, and
that the Coleophora in particular has need of every kind of
muscle in the fashioning and bearing about its tent, a feeling
of positive awe steals over the mind. Every kind of muscle !
Yes — levators, depressors, flexors, extensors, abductors, ad-
ductors, supinators, and pronators. We need but watch the
persistent action of those busy jaws to be very sure that its
abductors and adductors are in perfection ; whilst to twist
about its spinnaret and weave the tapestry of its chamber,
supinators and pronators must be in full play, as well as
the ceaseless constrictor muscles, opening and closing the
spiracles, and giving such varied movements to the segments
of the abdomen. Would the dorsal vessel pulsate without

THE COLEOPIIORA, OR TENT-MAKERS. 35

that arrangement of muscular fibre, by which the systole and
diastole is maintained ? and would the peristaltic motion, so
necessary to digestion, go on without that exquisite network
of innumerable muscular threads, which twine along, and
across, and around every internal organ ? No ; all this
mystery of life goes on planned, directed, and sustained
beneath the tegument of this microscopic worm.

" Now what is the little larva about ? I have placed it
under the microscope ; it has at length entered the leaf, and
eaten more than the length and breadth of its body. I
turned it out of its case at 2 P.M. It wandered restlessly
until 4 P.M., then fixed and opened its circular door, slowly
going forward, until on my return at 10 P.M. it had advanced
into perfect shelter. The next morning a large blotch was
eaten, but I was in time to sit beside the elm-branch and
watch the making of the tent. It had fixed near the edge
of the leaf, and was carefully eating out the parenchyma of
each serrature, leaving the edges untouched, as it thereby
saved a seam in the tent, yet emptying each tooth to make
it light and less brittle. When all was clear, the larva
measured a gentle curve a little larger than its body, and
began to draw the cuticle together on the opposite side to
the serratures— tacking it loosely at first, and biting the
membrane between the fibres, sewing it more neatly then,
and careful not to cut the supporting braces formed by the
nerves of the leaf. Then it rubbed the interior of the case
with its head, as if to smooth it, and presently began to
darken it with a web of fine silk, rendering further operations
invisible, only I perceived that one end was left open for
the ejection of its excrement, and that the fibres were cut
mysteriously away, when the tent by powerful muscular
action was raised from the leaf, and the Coleophora marched
off to refresh itself in a new excavation. Yet that was another
point on which to rest and ponder. What was it eating, and
how much did it eat? What store of delicate and varied
food lies in the cells of any leaf; sugar and starch and chlora-
phyll, oils and gums and raphides ; ay, and in some plants,
like the common nettle, beautiful crystals suspended from the

36 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

cell-wall, or floating about; sweetmeats and candies for the
little gourmand — no wonder it eats so much ; in twelve hours
it ate the weight of its own body ; as if a man should in the
same time demolish thirty four-pound loaves of bread."

This formation of a tent at the edge of a leaf is not a mere
routine of instinct, for Reaumur tested the resources of one of
the same Limosipennella (Fig. 8) by turning one out to make
a new case, and when the excavation was completed, cutting
off the teeth of the leaf. The two membranes flew apart,
and the little larva seemed to be surprised and troubled ; after
a little hesitation apparently it saw the remedy, turned itself
about, and threw a few threads from side to side, pulled them
close and joined the rent. Then, as if considering that a like
misfortune might happen again, before proceeding in the
work of mining necessary for a full-sized case, it darkened
the interior of the mine with a regular silken tube, which it
left to continue and mine in a curve directly down the leaf
and across the fibres. Now and then it returned to the tube,
and lengthened and strengthened that ; yet with strange fore-
thought the case was not woven throughout ; one side was
merely tacked together and spaces left by which the larva
could put out its head and cut the leaf between the fibres
which now supported the case, yet somehow perceiving
that from the cutting away of the edge the natural curve
was destroyed, the larva actually changed the aperture from
one end to the opposite, in order to obtain the proper and con-
venient shape. At last, after two days' hard work, the tent
was finished, and the thoughtful, patient little architect went
on its way towards the development and perfection of its being.

The Coleophora Vitella, whose tent is given in Fig. 2, may
be found as early as April, having begun its case from the"
leaf of Vaccinium vitis idcca (cranberry) in the autumn, and
up to the end of the month the case is being continually
enlarged with pieces of the mined leaf, giving it a wrinkled
appearance, and making it paler near the mouth as fresh
bits are added, and the case becomes pistol-shaped. The
moth comes out at the end of June, and is abundant near
Manchester.

THE COLEOPHORi, OR TENT-MAKERS. 37

Coleophora laricella (Fig. 4a) is a very small pretty little
tent-maker, and feeds on the tenderest shoots of the larch in
early spring time. It is hatched in the autumn, and mining a
slender leaf cuts it off and hoists it as a tent for its shelter and
defence, remaining asleep in it all the winter, and with the first
warmth of April, and with the cuckoo's note, awakening to
feed on the under side of the fresh green leaves. The mine
is very transparent, and the proceedings of the caterpillar
easily observed. The moth is all of one colour, a light brown
with silky grey under-wings ; and is plentiful at Guildford,
Manchester, York, and in Scotland.

The Coleophora juncicolella (Fig. 5) may be found on the
heights of Dover, making its tent on the tufts of heath, with
seven or nine little leaves, nor more nor less. Some are
withered and reddish-brown or yellow, and the lower ones are
green, so making a parti-coloured tent. The moth is small
and grey -winged.

Coleopliora Muripennella (Fig. 6a) may be found in the seed-
vessels of the luzula, in June, near London, Lewes, Worthing,
York, Scarborough, and in Scotland, and the delicately
striped brown moth is abundant from April to June.

Coleopliora Curricepennella (Fig. 7), a pretty striped moth,
is more abundant abroad than in England, yet it is found
near London and Wimbledon in May and June, producing a
larva which weaves a case entirely of silk, quite black, and
with four projections, diminishing towards the mouth, and
one row forming a right-angle with another row. IVeats the
leaf so delicately that the parenchyma is removed, and the
perfect network of fine veins left unbroken.

Coleopliora lineola (Fig. 9) will repay the trouble of hunting
for it on the underside of Ballota nigra (black horehound), or
Lainiinn purpurea (purple dead nettle), and if you see some
whity-brown, glassy-looking blotches in September, on these
leaves, look under the leaf, and you will most likely find
quite a little company of them on a single leaf.

The Coleopliora ducordella (Fig. 10) is found on grassy
banks where the Lotus corniculatus grows, busily employed in
adding piece after piece to his tent, which curves over like a

38 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

reversed cornucopia. This larva feeds in August, and a
silvery-striped pretty moth comes forth in June, for, like most
of these case-bearers, it has a long larva-life of nearly nine
months, hybernating in the cold winter, and recommencing
active life in the spring.

The entomological student may look for various species of
tent-makers on the following plants :—

On the Rushes .... (7. ccespititiella.

On Silene inflata . . . C. inflata.

On Furze buds . . . . C. albicosta.

On Knapweed . . . . C. conspicudla.

On Stellaria Holastea . C. solitariella.

On the Sallow .... (7. mminetella.

On Wormwood . . . . C. ditella.

On Cistus C. ochrea.

REFERENCES TO PLATE.

Fig. 1. Coleophora chalcogrammella. la. Larva-tent feed-
ing on Cerastium arvense. 2. Tent of Coleophora Vitella.
3. Larva of Coleophora. 4. Shoots of larch with larva of
C. laricella. 4a. The tent of C. laricella magnified. 5. Tent
of C. juncicolella on heath. 5a. The same magnified.

6. Tent of Coleophora Muripennella. 6a. The same magnified.

7. Coleophora Curricepennella. 7 a. The tent of the same
magnified. 8. Elm leaf with tents of Coleophora Limosipen-
nella. Sa. A tent just cut from the leaf. 8b. The larva walking
off with its tent, 9. The tent of Coleophora lineola. 10. The
tent of Coleophora discordella.

PLATE I.

THE MAY FLY.— GREEN AND GREY DRAKE.
(Ephemera vulgata.}

39

THE EPHEMERA, OR MAY-FLY.

THIS beautiful insect, the delight of the trout fisher, is so
called from the Greek t^/yuepa, living for a day. The family
of Epliemiridce consist of several genera, the generic charac-
ters of which are taken from the number of wings, and the
setae, or hair-like appendages to the abdomen. These setae
are of great use to the little insect in steering its way through
the air whilst performing that beautifully undulating flight
which all must have observed. The Ephemerae have long,
soft, tapering bodies, terminating in three long setae, and four
wings placed nearly or quite perpendicularly. Their antennae
are very small and three-pointed. The setae are longer in the
male, which is also readily distinguished from the female by
longer fore-feet ; the colour of the male is much darker than
that of the female, being bronze or chocolate ; and the male is
also much smaller. The ovaries consist of two almond-shaped
organs, which occupy nearly the whole of the abdominal
cavity. The ova are unattached, and readily separate them-
selves in water. It is the possession of these ovaries that
makes the insects such fat delicacies for the hungry fish which
feed on them. The eggs, having been deposited in the water,
sink to the bottom, and change into a small larva, in which state
it is said to live for two or three years, under water or in wet
places, and then to change to the nympha. Both in its larval
and nyniphal condition the creature eats, and the intestinal
canal is found to contain numerous algae spores, small
Crustacea, rotifera, &c.

The larvae and nymphae are often found in holes in the
river banks, and frequently also in the sand or mud at the
bottom of the water. The only difference between the larva

40 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

and nympha is that the latter has sheaths for the wings,
which are rolled or crumpled up inside them. The banks of
rivers may often be seen to be completely riddled by these
larva?, which tunnel for themselves tubular galleries in the
mud to the depth of four or five -inches. The larvae of some
other members of the Ephemeridas, instead of living under the
sand, or in tubular galleries, swim from place to place, as in
the genus Cloe, while others crawl on the ground and on
aquatic plants. In throwing off their swaddling-clothes the
Ephemeras emerge through a split in the back. They often
draw out the anterior part of the body first, and sometimes
the tail part, or abdomen, appears first. Sometimes, instead
of leaving their swaddling-clothes in the water, they deposit
them on a blade of grass, or some water-weed. Being heavy
fliers in their sub-imago state — for their wings are scarcely
dry, and their muscles unequal as yet to any great exertion—
they are constantly dropping for a second or two on the water,
and are then sucked down the throat of some fish.

The Kev. W. Houghton thus describes the further meta-
morphosis: — "Let us now follow the green-drake to the spot
where he has rested. Here he will remain for the space of
two or three hours, perhaps, and then will be introduced to
the world of life as an adult and perfect insect. Look at this
blade of grass. What is the shadowy form that clings to it?
It is a delicate membrane, thin and light as possible, which
the slightest breath will blow away. Notice the split across
the back, through which the former tenant left his abode. It
is the cast-on0 skin of the green-drake, now metamorphosed
into a creature more active than Harlequin or Columbine —
the male into a dark-brown insect, with clear and gauze-
like wings, the female into a beautiful creature, with body
marbled white and brown. How different now is the mode
of flight ! But, alas, ' out of the frying-pan into the fire/
The flies are partly safe from Scylla, but they fall into
Charybdis ; for birds of various kinds, swallows, swifts, tom-
tits, larks, chaffinches, and a host of other feathered enemies,
are on the watch, seeking the dainty morsels to feed them-
selves or their hungry young. See now how curious is the

THE EPHEMERA, OR MAY-FLY. 41

dance they practise. Up and down, up and down ! with head
erect, and bodies prettily curving upwards, dancing in the
sun, which now shines out from beneath the clouds — merrily,
merrily ! Truly an Ephemera's life has many ' ups and
downs,' and the insects doubtless enjoy them immensely. But
we must here notice that it is the males that execute this
particular style of dance, rising up sometimes ten or twelve
feet, then dropping down suddenly the same distance. At
least, I am inclined to think this dancing is confined to the
gentlemen ; for I have never yet detected a lady, in her white
and marble dress, amongst the company. The flight of her
ladyship differs considerably now from what it was before she
cast her last garments away. No longer a clumsy, helpless
mode of flying, sustained with much difficulty ; but a swift,
strong flight, not unlike that of the dragon-fly, is that of the
perfect Ephemeral imago. Now high in the air, now sailing
along close to the surface of the water, ever and anon dipping
gently into it, she is evidently busy discharging some
important duty. She is laying her eggs, by little packets at
a time, first in one place and then in another. The small oval
eggs sink quickly down to the bottom, and attach themselves to
submerged weeds and stones. This is the sole object of her
life, now that she has become a mother ; not a particle of food
has she tasted since she left her nymphal state, not a particle
of food will she taste so long as her short life lasts. If you
examine the digestive apparatus of any of these insects,
whether male or female, when in the imago or sub-imago
state, you will never find the slightest traces of food in the
stomach ; this organ, as well as the whole intestinal canal, is
almost always full of air-bubbles ; catch one of those dancing
males with their long extended fore-feet, that' you may mis-
take for antennae, and press him quickly in the middle, crack
he goes, for the little air-bubbles have burst by the pressure.
No wonder that Ephemera's stomach is empty, for he has no
mouth, at least none that could be of any use to him ; so
rudimentary is that organ now. The intestinal canal, there can
be no doubt, serves the purpose of buoying up the little
animal, and saves the expenditure of muscular action ; for as

42 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

no food is taken to supply the waste, the muscles will not be
capable of long-sustained action."

When they attain their final stage of metamorphosis and
perfect form, they are among the most fleeting of living
creatures, existing often for only a few hours, 'and propagating
their species before they die. In this state they sometimes
appear suddenly in myriads, during fine summer evenings, by
the water-side, where they may be seen flitting about and
balancing themselves in the air, in the manner of gadflies.
But the term Ephemera, so applicable to this creature of a
day, must not be understood in too restricted a sense. It is
quite true that numbers are devoured by fishes or birds before
their final change is effected, and that the survivors have but
a very brief existence. After the laying of the eggs, which,
however, may last more than a single day, the female
perishes, or dies a natural death. The only business of her
life being accomplished, she has now only to die. If, how-
ever, a specimen be caught, and kept in confinement, and the
laying be thus checked, an Ephemera may live several days.
Whether the males are as short-lived as the females, we can-
not say, but it is not improbable that they may survive some-
what longer, though, from the fact of their taking no food, it
is probable that the life of all the Ephemerce is very short.

The figure on the left-hand blade of grass in the coloured
plate represents the female green-drake, which changes into the
grey-drake, seen resting on the right-hand blade, leaving her
cast-off pellicle upon the grass stem. The flying insect is the
perfect male.

That the grey-drake is only the female green-drake meta-
morphosed, or rather after the last pellicle is cast, may be
sometimes readily proved by dissection. The marble and
white skin of the female grey-drake may be seen by carefully
slitting open or peeling off the first integument of the green-
drake.

•The expressions green and grey -drakes, as applied to the
May-flies by anglers, owe their origin to the fact that the
wings of the artificial fly are made from a mallard's feather,
dyed olive for the green-drake, or immature condition of the

THE EPHEMERA, OR MAY-FLY. 43

insect; and from the same feather, slightly stained with
purple, for the grey-drake, or perfect form of the female.
The term May-fly is very indefinite, standing for all sorts of
different insects in different counties.

In this country, the May-flies appear about the end of May
and the beginning of June, and continue for about three weeks.
The green-drake issues from his nymphal state almost at any
hour in the day, but especially when the sun is shining. In
Sweden, the birth of these insects is confined nearly to the
evening, about sunset ; but it is quite an error to assert that
our British Ephemera vulgata emerges from the water only
in the evening. Some species of Epherneridse appear in the
most astonishing swarms, in some parts of Europe. Scopoli
tells us, that so great an abundance of E. vulgata sometimes
occurs near the Lake Laz, in the month of June, that the
inhabitants of the district are quite disappointed if they do
not collect twenty cartloads of insects for manure ! " Between
the 10th and 15th of August is the time when those of the
Seine and the Marne, which Reaumur described, are expected
by the fishermen, who call them manna ; and when their
season is come, they say, ' The manna begins to appear ; the
manna fell abundantly such a night.'" These immense swarms
of Ephemeridce have been noticed in Holland, Switzerland, and
France, and have been compared to falling flakes of snow.
" The myriads of Ephemerae which filled the air," says
Reaumur, " over the current of the river, and over the bank
on which I stood, are neither to be expressed nor conceived.
When the snow falls with the largest flakes, and with the
least interval between them, the air is not so full of them as
that which surrounded the Ephemerce" The occurrence of
such countless swarms of Ephemeridcv is unknown in the
British Isles.

44 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

MIMETIC ANALOGY,

ILLUSTRATED BY SOUTH AMERICAN BUTTERFLIES.

MIMETIC ANALOGY is a term used to express the extraordi-
nary imitation by one animal of some other animal, which is
most frequently of some other group. Sometimes the object
imitated is inanimate, as a stone, a bud, a leaf, or a broken
twig, instances of which are so common that they have been
noticed by the most ordinary observers. " The greater
number of animals," says Mr. Tegetmeier, " assume more or
less closely the colour and appearance of the objects with
which they are generally surrounded. Thus reptiles, such as
frogs, snakes, &c., living on the ground, resemble the colour
of objects on the earth's surface ; whereas the tree-frogs are
usually of a bright green colour, in accordance with the
leaves amongst which they spend their lives. Even in birds
of bright showy plumage, in which this assimilation of colours
would hardly ever be suspected, it frequently prevails. Thus
in the beautiful little Australian warbling parrakeets, known
generally in this country by the aboriginal name of Bet-
cherrygar, the resemblance of the colour to that of the leaves
of the Eucalypti, or gum-tree, on which they repose during
the mid-day heat, is so close, as Mr. Gould informs us, that
though dozens may be perched on a branch, they are hardly
to be observed when at rest. Among our own insects the
imitation of inanimate objects is not unfrequent : the common
buff-tip moth is a familiar example, as when at rest it closely
resembles a piece of broken lichen-covered twig, the end of
which is simulated by the tips of its closed wings. The use
of the terms mimetic analogy and mimicry, as descriptive of
these undeniable phenomena, has been strongly objected to

^^^-H~j^

Illustrating Mimetic Anulmjy.

3. L'
:noe,
var. Leuconoe.

- a Flora.

MIMETIC ANALOGY. 45

by certain writers, who imagine that the words imply that
the animals have power to change or alter their own condi-
tion. No supposition can be possibly more absurd. The
change is not effected by the will of the individual animal,
but occurs in the species ; variations are involuntary, and at
present even their very cause is unknown ; all that is known
is that they do occur both in wild and domestic animals, and
that they are capable of hereditary transmission."

This imitation of natural objects is not confined to a few
species ; but has been observed in entire groups, and even in
the whole insect fauna of a country at particular seasons.
The Rev. Joseph Greene, writing on our autumnal and winter
moths in the Zoologist for 1856, says: "I am not aware
whether any entomologist has ever been struck by the singular
adaptation and similarity of colouring in the autumnal and
winter Lepidoptera to the prevailing tints of nature during
these seasons. Counting from the middle of September, when
the leaves begin to turn, to the end of February, we find
among the Bombyces, Noctuse, and Geometra?, about fifty-
eight species on the wing. Now in the autumn the hue of
nature is golden — she passes through all the intermediate
stages from pale yellow to a deep rich brown ; while in
winter s]je assumes a grey or silvery garb. Taking those
fifty-eight species, we find in their prevailing colours a striking
and remarkable similarity to those which nature assumes at
the time of their appearance in a winged state. Three species
are doubtful, seven militate against my theory, the remainder
are decidedly in my favour." He then proceeds to enume-
rate the autumnal species, which are yellow or rich brown,
and the winter species, which are grey or silvery, and con-
cludes : — " It certainly strikes me as a very interesting fact,
showing the hand of an Almighty and Allwise Being to be
visible in this as in all the other works of the Creation."

These imitations are not confined to tl\e invertebrate
animals or the loAver forms of life, for there are examples of
mimetic analogy among the warm-blooded vertebrata. Thus
the grey-banded cuckoos so closely resemble hawks, both in
appearance and flight, that they are constantly mistaken for

46 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

them in all parts of the world, not only by the natives, but
by the smaller birds of the several countries.

As it may be thought that these imitations are rather
general and accidental, than particular and designed, we will
quote a close and very remarkable example of imitation,
described by Mr. Wallace, in the Transactions of the Zoo-
logical Society, who, when speaking of the birds newly dis-
covered by him in the Mollucca Islands, observes, " that two
species of the Oriolidse, natives of Bouru and Ceram, de-
parted altogether from the natural appearance of the group,
and mimicked two species of Honeysuckers so closely as to
deceive ordinary observers." Speaking of the birds inhabiting
Bouru, he writes : " The oriole has departed from the usual
gay colouring of its allies, and is actually the dullest coloured
of its family, while the honeysucker that it imitates very
much resembles in its colouration other species of the group
to which it belongs. The imitation is carried to the minutest
particulars ; the black orbits of the honeysucker are copied by
a patch of dusky feathers around the eyes of the oriole, and
even the very peculiar ruff of recurved feathers on the nape
of the former, has its general effect imitated by a collar of
pale colour in the latter. The under and upper surfaces of
the two birds are as near as possible of the same tint respec-
tively, and, stranger still, the oriole has closely copied the
mode of flight and voice of its model, so that in a state of
nature the two birds are practically undistinguishable. This
curious instance does not stand alone, for in the adjacent island
of Ceram, two allied but very distinct species resemble each
other with equal accuracy."

With regard to the object of this imitation, Mr. Wallace
observes : " In the case of insects it seems probable that it is
the odour or the taste of the imitated species which is un-
palatable to insect-eating birds ; or, in other cases, like the
clear-winged moths, which mimic Hymenoptera, the species
mimicked are armed with a sting. In birds, it is evident that
the bravest, strongest, and best-armed groups should be the
subjects of mimicry, and the weakest and most defenceless
those which should obtain some advantage by imitating them.

MIMETIC ANALOGY. 47

" Returning to the oriole and the honeysucker, we have to
observe that the former is a smaller, weaker, less active, less
noisy, and less pugnacious bird. The feet have a less power-
ful grasp, and the bill is less acute. The latter has a great
variety of loud and piercing notes, which bring its companions
to the rescue in time of danger. And I have observed them
drive away crows, and even hawks, which had ventured to
perch on a tree where two or three of them were feeding.
The honeysucker knows how to take care of himself, and
make himself both respected and feared. It would, therefore,
evidently be to the advantage of the more defenceless oriole
to be mistaken for him.

" In this instance, as in most others, the imitation is far
closer in the living bird than in the dead specimens. This is
a far more satisfactory case of mimicry than any of those
which I have before alluded to as occurring among birds.
We have here two species, each confined to single islands, and
each accurately imitated by a bird of a distinct family, with
which it has no direct affinities. I therefore cannot doubt
that this is a true case of mimicking exactly analogous to that
so common among insects."

The most remarkable cases of mimetic analogy which have
come to our knowledge are those of certain butterflies found
in the valley of the Amazon. Mr. H. W. Bates investigated
these cases most carefully, and recorded the results in the
Transactions of the Linnaean Society, vol. xxiii., from which
we give a summary of his observations.

Among the numerous butterflies of this region are various
genera and species belonging to the family of Heliconidse.
They thrive and flourish although of feeble structure and slow
in flight, and apparently without any means of defence in
districts abounding with insect- eating birds, and are so
numerous that the pathways of the forests are quite gay with
the myriads that fly about clothed in bright orange, yellow,
red, blue, and black. Some of the species are in the habit of
assembling in small parties like our gnats, or by twos and
threes, to sport together, and perform a kind of mazy dance.
The sport generally begins with a single pair, which advance,

48 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

retire, glide right and left in face of each other, wheel round
to a considerable distance, again approach, and so on ; then a
third joins in, then a fourth, and others until a large party is
assembled. They never touch ; but when too many are con-
gregated a general flutter ensues, and they all fly off to fall
in again by pairs soon afterwards.

Wherever large numbers of these Heliconidse are found,
they are always accompanied by species which mimic them in
size, form, colour, and marking, so closely that it is often im-
possible to distinguish one species from the other when they
are on the wing, as the imitators fly in the same part of the
forest, and usually accompany the species they imitate. To
so wonderful a degree does this imitation extend, that in cases
where there is a local variety of a species of this family, the
butterfly imitating that particular species changes so as to
follow the varieties of its model.

It may be asked, if two butterflies, of totally distinct
groups, and different structures, so closely resemble one
another, how can it be known which is the imitator and
which the imitated ? But the apparently puzzling question is
easily answered. The imitated preserve the form and like-
ness peculiar to the family to which they belong; but the
imitators are of a different aspect to their nearest allies.
Thus when a clear- winged moth is found, bearing a close >
resemblance to any species of bee, it may be reasonably in-
ferred that the moth, having departed from the usual aspect
of its group, has imitated the bee, which remains like its
congeners or fellows, and not that the bee has imitated the
moth which differs from its species. For example, we are
justified in assuming that the different species of Leptalis,
shown in our plate (Figs. 2, 3, and 4), are the imitators,
because they have departed from the proper normal form of
the genus Leptalis which is shown in Fig. 1, representing
L. Nehemia ; and that the Heliconidas there shown belonging
to the genera Ithomia and Methona are the imitated, because
they resemble their nearest allies. Hence we regard Leptalis
T/ieonoe, var. Leuconoe (Fig. 2), as imitating Ithomia Ilerdi.na
(Fig. 2a) ; Leptalis Orise (Fig. 3) as imitating Methona Psidii

MIMKTU ANALOGY. 4'J

(Fig. 3a) ; and Leptalis Theonoe (Fig. 4; as imitating Ithomia
Flora (Fig. 4a). These resemblances are sufficiently striking
even as shown in our plate, and still more so when observed
in preserved specimens in the cabinet ; but it is only when
the insects are viewed in their natural state that the palpable
intentional imitation is fully seen ; for those features are
most developed by nature which produce the most effective
deception when the insects are seen alive.

The object to be gained by this imitation is evident in the
majority of cases — protection against natural enemies either by
concealment or disguise. Those animals that resemble the
objects with which they are surrounded, are protected from
the observation of others that prey upon them. The ground
feeding birds, such as 'the partridge and snipe, the hare
amidst dried leaves, the ptarmigan in the snow, the ermine in
its winter dress, are all well-known instances of the advantage
of the assimilation of colour to that of surrounding objects.
In the case of the South American butterflies, the imitation is
obviously for the purpose of disguise rather than that of con-
cealment. The Heliconidse are a numerous and flourishing
group ; and, although slow in flight, are never persecuted by
birds or dragon-flies, to which it might be supposed they
would be an easy prey ; nor, when at rest on the leaves, are
they molested by lizards or predaceous flies which constantly
devour butterflies of other families. The Heliconidse seem to
owe their safety to their offensive odour, which renders them
unpalatable to the enemies of insects ; and even when set out
to dry in the cabinet, they are less liable than other specimens
to the attacks of vermin. Now it is obvious that the more
closely an inodorous butterfly of another species resembles
one of the offensive and unpalatable Heliconidae, the less
likely will it be to be preyed upon by its natural enemies,
which is evidently the cause of the imitations of the genera
Ithomia and Methona by the persecuted insects of the genus
Leptalis.

Naturalists differ in opinion as to the origin of these
resemblances. " Some naturalists," says Mr. Tegetmeier,
" maintain that the resemblances existed from the Creation ;

E

50 CUKIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

but the difficulties in this view of the case are numerous.
One of the strongest arises from the fact, that in those cases
where a local variation of the imitated animal exists, the
imitator also varies to keep up the resemblance. Others say
that as imitator and imitated both inhabit the same district,
they are necessarily exposed to the same external conditions,
producing the same amount of form and colour. This also is
a perfectly untenable argument. It cannot be imagined that
an insect resembles a green leaf or the bark of a tree, because
both are exposed to the same physical conditions. By the
Darwinian Theory of Natural Selection, the explanation of
these remarkable analogies is sufficiently easy. All animals,
without exception, are liable to variation in form, colour, and
in size. Among insects in particular, variations of marking
and form are most frequent. Let us now imagine a race of
insects like those of the genus Leptalis, that have no special
means of defence, and are consequently liable to be devoured
by predaceous animals. When a variety of Leptalis arose
which happened to resemble in any slight degree the offensive
Heliconidse, it would be much less liable to be pursued by
predaceous animals than the unchanged original to which they
were accustomed, hence that variety would have a greater
chance of being propagated. Similar variations would occur
in subsequent generations, those imitations that most closely
resemble the model always being left, until at last this
remarkable result would follow, that two insects, belonging to
distinct families, would so closely resemble one another
as only to be distinguished by a close inspection of their
structural peculiarities."

BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS IN DISGUISE- AT REST,

INSECT J)ISGUI>I> 51

INSECT DISGUISES.

A LARGE number of the members of the animal creation,
especially of the world of insects, wear disguises, the study of
which is most interesting on account of its very close bearing
upon their history. In all cases of disguise it will be found
to be of vital importance to the insect ; and that portion of
its structure which is concealed by the disguise often presents
a striking contrast to the rest. Our common white butter-
flies are familiar but good examples, their colouring being
so arranged that not a particle of the very conspicuous
white is exposed when they are asleep, but only the dusky
yellowish which colours the under sides of the hind wings and
the tips of the fore wings. It may be further observed that this
yellowish colour alone is visible only when the creature rests
strictly speaking, and not when it merely settles on a leaf or
flower on a sunny day — for the wings are then more or less
open, and the white shows strongly ; but in this case the insect
is always thoroughly on the alert, and would avoid any np-
proaching enemy by flight, while in the evening, or on very
dull days, they are fast asleep, and, when found, as easy to cap-
ture as the plucking of the flower which they resemble. Their
disguise is also aided by the fastidious care which they may
be observed to use, as evening approaches, in choosing their
sleeping-places, as they often change their places many times
before settling down for the night.

The Anthocharis cardamines, or orange-tip, so beautiful
as it gaily flutters along the hedgerows on a sunny spring
morning, is most wonderfully protected by the colouring of
its under surface when it is resting at night on the buds or
blossoms of the Antliriscus syhestris, or wild parsley, or some
other small white flower, as shown in our coloured plate.

K 2

52 CUIUOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

Mr. T. W. Wood says : "I have never seen the insect
touch the wild parsley for any purpose but sleep, as it visits
the little pink geranium, during sunshine, for the nectar it
contains, at which time the wings are open,, although not.
widely expanded. If the collector requires a few very fresh
and uninjured specimens of this insect, he need only furnish
himself with a few boxes, and walking along the hedgerows
on a calm evening in May, his eyes will be gladdened by the
pretty white bunches of wild parsley-blossom in great pro-
fusion, amongst which, and simulating them exactly, he will
be sure either to spy or pass by the orange-tip. In the
former case, all that is necessary is to open a box and close it
very gently upon butterfly and flower, severing the flower
stem outside the box, and placing it with its contents in his
pocket. On arriving home, he will generally find that the
insect has not moved in the least. Care should, however, be
taken that the box is carried steadily, and that only a small
piece of the blossom is enclosed, otherwise it may occupy
too much room in the box, and the butterfly will be damaged
in consequence. If carefully managed, the insect will not
have been touched, and may now be killed without touch-
ing it, by placing the box under a tumbler with a few
drops of Scheele's prussic acid on blotting paper, and
in a very few moments the beautiful creature will be
found lying dead and stiff at the bottom of the box ; but it
will be sure to relax the next clay, and will then be fit for
setting. This mode of capture I would recommend as being
preferable in many respects to the one usually adopted with
butterflies. There is no fluttering, and consequent damage,
while in the net ; the collector will not have to endanger his
limbs by running madly over sometimes very uneven ground,
with eye necessarily fixed only upon the one object of pursuit,
which, when caught in the net, has to be disabled by a pinch
in the thorax, intended to kill, which it never does ; but the
beauty and symmetry of form are often irretrievably injured
by fracture of the outer skin or shell, which in all insects is
their chief framework ; legs are frequently broken off, and
much beautiful down removed. By my plan all these draw-

INSECT DISGUISES. o3

backs are avoided." The blue butterflies maybe found in the
evening, resting with their heads downwards on the buds
and blossoms of grass, plantain, &c., which with their beauti-
fully-spotted undersides and general appearance when in the
attitude shown in our plate, they so closely resemble that
they usually escape notice.

The chrysalides of butterflies possess a most extraordinary
means of disguising themselves, their shells being photogra-
phically sensitive for a short time after the caterpillars' skins
have been shed ; so that each individual assumes the colour
most prevalent in its immediate neighbourhood. As cater-
pillars are evidently unaffected by colour in their choice of a
resting-place on which to undergo their transformations, this
photographic power in the chrysalides is most important for
their concealment during their period of exposure in a state
of utter helplessness, which varies from a few weeks to half a
year, and in some exceptional cases occupies more than a
year.

The Plilogoplwra meticulosa, or angle-shades moth, shown in
our coloured plate, is remarkable from its peculiar and pro-
bably unique appearance during the day, its time of resting,
the fore wings being curled on their outer margins, thus
adding greatly to the disguise, which is evidently that of a
withered, dried-up leaf. The curl disappears immediately
when the moth prepares for flight, and the wings then become
as flat as those of any other insect.

There is a small moth belonging to the genus Antithesia,
very common in gardens, shown on the central leaf in our
coloured plate, which, when at rest, is exactly like the
excrement of a sparrow, or other small bird, and, as we always
find, the disguise it wears suits its habits, for it sits fully ex-
posed to view on the upper surface of leaves, &c., and will
drop off when the leaves are shaken as if it were really a
lifeless object.

A most beautiful example of disguise among caterpillars is
found in that of the Papilio machaon, or swallow-tailed butter-
fly, which feeds on carrot leaves. The black markings of the
insect, as viewed from the side, closely imitate the interstices

54

CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

between the smaller serrated leaflets ; the diagonal termi-
nations of the stripes on each side greatly aid the resemblance,
and even the orange spots are placed exactly where that
colour begins to appear on the carrot leaf, namely, at the
points of the serrations ; while in size also the insect and its
markings agree exactly with the leaves. (See Engraving.)

These few examples will doubtless excite the reader's
interest ; but there is a vast field for observation, and if he
will search carefully in our gardens, heaths, and woods, he
will find many and extraordinary forms of insect disguises
which will amply repay the time and labour he may devote to
this interesting subject.

THE OAK-FEEDING SILKWORM OF CHINA. OO

THE OAK-FEEDING SILKWOEM OF CHINA.

CHINA \vas undoubtedly the country in which men first
availed themselves of the labours of the silkworm. Aristotle
is the first Greek author who mentions the silkworm (Nat.
Hist. V. 19) ; and he states that silk was first spun in the
island of Cos, but the raw material was still an oriental
product. For many centuries it was not known in Europe
from what source silk was produced. It was not indeed until
the sixth century that the obscurity which enveloped this
subject was cleared up by the successful result of a journey,
made by two Nestorian monks, to China to unravel the
mystery. The breeding of silkworms in Europe was for six
centuries confined to the Greeks of the Lower Empire. In
the twelfth century the art was transferred to Sicily ; in the
thirteenth century the rearing of silkworms and the manu-
facture of silk were introduced into Italy, whence it was
successively introduced into Spain and France, and in the
fifteenth century the manufacture was established in England.

One of the most interesting of the silkworm family is the
Bombyx nwri, well known as the moth to which the silkworm
turns. This species, which was originally from China, is of a
white or cream colour, with a brown fascia and two or more
waved lines of a deeper colour crossing the upper wings. In
this country the eggs of this moth are hatched early in May.
The caterpillar, or silkworm, is at first of a dark colour, but
soon becomes light, and in its tints much resembles the perfect
insfi-t — a circumstance common in caterpillars. Its proper
food is the mulberry, though it will likewise eat the lettuce
and some few other plants ; on these plants, however, it does
not thrive equally well, and the silk yielded is of a poor
quality.

50 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

The disease which made such ravages amongst the Bombyx
inori, or common silkworm, in the South of Europe, caused
attention to be directed to new sources for supply, or at least
for additions to the ordinary supply of silk, which, like the
cotton, paper, and cinchona supply, had become a question of
the greatest importance. In the great silk-cultivating districts
in the South of Europe, a failure or deficiency in the supply
of that commodity would cause great poverty among the
people of those countries, and as much distress among our silk-
weavers as the want of cotton inflicted upon our Lancashire
operatives. Science has also gained something, and will pro-
bably gain more, from the experiments in the acclimatisation
of various species, as in the case of the Bombyx Cynthia, or
ailanthus worm, which has been proved not only to exist, but
even to be more healthy and vigorous, in this country than in
France. It is now about fourteen years since the Bombyx
Cynthia was first reared in Europe, and since then many other
species from India, China, Japan, and Australia have been
brought into notice.

The latest of these is the oak-feeding silkworm of China,
or Antliercea Pernyi. It produces what is known as mountain
silk, which has of late become a most important article of
trade amongst the Chinese. Specimens of the foliage and the
acorns of the oaks upon which they feed, together with some
cocoons containing some chrysalids, and some hanks of the
silk, were received at Kew from China about four years ago,
and from these specimens the species of oaks were ascertained.
Mr. Jackson, the Curator of the Museum at the Royal
Gardens, Kew, says : " Two of them, called by the Chinese
respectively large and small ' Tsing-kang-lew/ appear to be
Quercus Mongolica. Another called ' Hoo-po-lo ' is Quercus
obovata, Bunge, the leaves of which are larger and darker in
colour than those of Quercus Mongolica. There is also a
marked difference in the acorns, which are larger, and the
scales long and tapering, and of a dark brown colour, thus
giving to the cup the appearance of being covered with long
brown fur, which also partly covers the acorn itself. The
fourth is " Tseen-tso-tsze," and is the Quercus serrata of Thun-

THE OAK-FEEDING SILKWORM OF CHINA. Of

berg. The silkworms fed upon this oak produce the best
bilk ; the tree, however, is not so common in the silk districts
as either of the other species. The next best quality of silk is
produced by feeding the insects upon the leaves of Quercus
Mongolica, those of Quercus oborata producing the most inferior
description. Two crops of silk are produced by the Anthercea
Pernyi in one year — a spring and an autumn crop. The cocoons,
which are very large, are carefully selected by the silk
growers after the autumn crop of silk has been collected, and
stored away in baskets, which are usually hung up in ordi-
nary living rooms for the spring. The ordinary heat of a
Chinese living room during the winter seems to be quite
sufficient to prevent the frost affecting the chrysalids. The
temperature of a Chinese dwelling in the mountain silk dis-
tricts is during the greater part of the winter considerably
below freezing-point. It is thought that the chrysalis would
not be affected even if exposed on the trees during an ordinary
winter night in the Chinese forests, and if this be so, it will
probably prove hardy enough to bear our climate. Towards
the end of April the oaks upon which the caterpillars feed begin
to open their young leaves ; and to push forward the growth of
these leaves, so as to have food in readiness for the caterpillars
when hatched, twigs are cut off the trees, and placed either
in tubs of water in dwelling-houses, or in pools and mountain
streams. By the time the leaves have expanded, the moths
have made their escape from the cocoons, have paired,
deposited their eggs, which are hatched on sheets of paper
upon which the young leaves of the oak are placed. The
insects are thus nursed and nourished for a few days, by
which time they have grown to about an inch in length.
They are then transferred to the trees themselves on the hill
slopes, the younger and most tender-leaved plants being
selected. Some days elapse before the caterpillar moults for
the first time ; it also changes its colour from black to green,
and increases considerably in size. It goes through four of
these changes, after each of which its bulk is increased, but it
retains its green colour. It now begins spinning its silk, and
of course encloses itself in its cocoon, there again to take the

58 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

chrysalis form. These natural changes are gone through
much quicker in the spring than in the autumn season, a
difference of five or six weeks existing. In each season, as
fast as the caterpillars consume the leaves of one oak bush
they are removed by the attendant silk cultivator to another,
the youngest bushes being first used."

Mr. Meadows, the English Consul at Newchang, says :
" Just before spinning its cocoon, it is a bright green-bodied
grub or caterpillar, of about 83 to 4 inches in length, with a
light brown head. On its pale brown face there are six or
eight small black specks. Its body has twelve joints. When
the worm begins to make its cocoon, it selects two or more
oak leaves, more or less facing each other, and lower than the
twig from which they proceed. These leaves it joins together
by a network of its silk thread, which thread keeps issuing
from its mouth as it moves its head from one leaf to the other.
It holds on, in the meantime, by its back claws to the twig.
When the leaves are sufficiently joined to form a sort of cup
or basket under the twig to which it is holding, it loosens its
hold, and drops into the receptacle it has thus formed. The
hindermost seven joints of the body are then with the tail
joints slightly curled in, drawn together, and, remaining in a
state of total inaction, serve, I presume, merely as a store from
which the silk thread matter is drawn. The work of further
self-enclosure the animal does with his head, and the foremost
five joints of the body. It first quite surrounds itself with the
loose flossy-like silk which forms the outer portion of the
cocoons as they come to market, and through which its green
body remains for a time visible. It then gradually forms
the dense, hardish, skin-like substance which constitutes the
inner portion of the cocoon. On opening a cocoon which had
been recently formed, and was to outward appearance quite
finished, I found inside a complete green worm curled up in
the way I have described as to its hind part, and with the
fore part in the condition in which it is when the animal is in
one of its sleeps on the bush. After a while the fore part
began to move, and the animal to spin silk, which it attached
at each turn of its head to the surface of a table on which I

THE OAK-FEEDING SILKWORM OF CHINA. 59

had placed it. It seemed to be labouring to increase the
thickness of its cocoon, being, doubtless, roused to the neces-
sity of so doing by the feel of the open air to which it was
again exposed. I judged that if the cocoon had not been
opened, the animal would, after a sleep in it, have proceeded
to thicken the inner surface by further thread-spinning, and
have gone on so doing till its bulk was sufficiently decreased
for its turning into the chrysalis shape."

From this description of the Athercea Pernyi, or oak-feeding
silkworm, it will be seen that it very closely agrees in habits
with the Bombyx Cynthia, or ailanthus-feeder ; and if it should
succeed in our climate as well as that insect, and feed upon tiie
leaves of any of our British oaks, it will be a valuable acquisition.
The silk appears very strong, and, properly cleaned, would,
doubtless, be sufficiently bright and flossy, and will probably
make an important import from China.

These insects are not only useful as silk producers in their
native country, but their huge bodies are drawn out by the
Chinese into fishing-lines, which are of a somewhat similar
nature to catgut. We are told by a celebrated traveller in
China that these can sometimes be drawn out to a continuous
length of fifteen or twenty yards.*

Fig. 1 in the plate represents the cocoon, natural size ;
Fig. 2, the chrysalis, natural size ; Fig. 3, the moth, natural
size. The leaves and acorn are those of Quercus serrata, of
Thimberg, which produce the best kind of silk.

* For the process of making silkworm gut, see " Sea Fishing as
a Sport," by L. J. H. Young. Price 5s. Groombridge & Sons,
5, Paternoster Row. London.

CUHIOSITIKS OF ENTOMOLOGY.

INSECTS' EGGS.

NEARLY all insects are oviparous, or produce their young by
eggs. In form, colour, character, and beauty of design, the
eggs of insects are more surprisingly varied than those of the
feathered tribes. The elaboration of structure and variety of
forms in a large number might be turned to a practical
account, as many suggest patterns of great beauty and deli-
cacy for art designs. Our knowledge of the composition of
either -the exterior or interior is not so complete as in the case
of birds' eggs. Those of our readers who may wish for
information on the structure should read an able article on
the subject by Mr. Jabez Hogg, which appeared in the
Intellectual Observer for December, 1867.

The eggs of moths and butterflies present many varying
tints of colour, the prevailing being yellow, white, grey, and
a light brown. In some eggs the yellow, white, and grey are
delicately blended ; and these, when viewed with a magni-
fying power of about fifty diameters, and by the aid of a side
reflector (parabolic reflector), present many beautiful combi-
nations, and the most delicate opalescent, or rather iridescent
tints appear on others.

The egg of the Abraxas grossularia, or Magpie moth
(Fig. 1), is very delicate and silvery in tone, and the mem-
brane is so translucent that the movements of the young
worm within can be very well seen. The egg of the Aspilates
yilvaria, or Straw-belle moth (Fig. 2), is very delicately tinted ;
it is somewhat long and narrow in form, with sides slightly
flattened or rounded off, and is regularly serrated. The top
is convex, and the base a little indented. The Exarnis
ypsilon, or Dingy shears (Fig. 3), lays a small sub-conical egg,

W. F. Map!-:

: EGGS.

61

with a flattened base, which admits of its being firmly
cemented to either bark or leaf. The egg is beautifully
reticulated, the ribs are slightly raised from the membrane,
and connected with each other by cross-bars ; they run from
a marginal ring in regular order to the base, and a series of
fine lines radiates from the central spot to the border. The
£gg of the Pheosia dictcea, or Swallow-prominent (Fig. 4), is
spheroidal, slightly flattened at the poles, and, with the
exception of one spot, the surface is a continued series of
regular indentations, reminding one of those fine reticula-
tions, or markings, seen on some of the Guiano shells. The
colour is a very delicate pink. That of the Ennomos erosaria,
or Thorn moth (Fig. 5), is of an elongated square form, one
end of which is slightly tapered off, while the other is flat-
tened. The empty eggshell gives a fine opalescent play of
colours, while that containing the young worm appears of a
brownish yellow colour. The Diaerisia russula, or Buff- tiger
moth (Fig. 7), lays an exquisite little globular egg, the ex-
ternal membrane of which is covered by a fine network of
irregular hexagons. It has all the appearance of an irides-
cent minute glass globule, and is so translucent that the
young worm can be seen through it. The egg of the Erannis
defoliaria, or Mottled-umber moth (Fig. 8), is in every par-
ticular very beautiful. It is ovoid, with regular hexagonal
reticulations, each corner being studded with a white raised
knob or button. The space within the hexagon is
finely punctuated ; and the play of colours is exqui-
sitely delicate. That of the Hylopliila prasinana, or
small Silver-lines moth (Fig. 9), is yellow brown, in form a
truncated pyramid. A series of raised ribs are set in regular
order around the sides, and the cross-bars, which connect
them, presenting a pretty basket-like pattern. The egg is
flattened out at the base, apparently for the purpose of
securing it more firmly to the leaf. The Centra linula or
Puss moth (Fig. 10), lays a large spheroidal shaped egg,
having, under the microscope, the appearance of a fine ripe
orange. The surface of the egg is finely reticulated, or
rather has the appearance of a piece of netting stretched

b2 CURIOSITIES OF ENTOMOLOGY.

tightly over it. The colour is a deep orange. A remarkable
instance of the change of colour, which occurs from physiolo-
gical causes connected with the development of the embryo,
and one from which the insect partly derives its name, is seen
in the Endromus versicolor, or Glory of Kent. The egg is
first bright yellow, then successively green, rose colour, and
reddish black. A still more familiar instance is presented in
the egg of the Bombyx mori, or Silkworm moth (Fig. 11),
which, when first laid, is of a delicate pale yellow ; this hue it
retains for some time ; it is subsequently of a reddish brown,
and just before the embryo quits the egg it acquires a slate
colour, partaking for the time being of the colour of the
embryo within ; but so soon as the worm emerges forth, the
shell regains its original pale yellow. The outer and inner
portions of the egg membrane are represented magnified 150
diameters at a and b (Fig. 11). The Euproctis chrysorrhasa,
or Browntail moth (Fig. 12), produces a small spheroidal egg,
which, slightly flattened at the poles, is uniformly covered
with imbricated scales, and is terminated in the upper pole by
a geometrical series ; this moth appears to cover her eggs
with fine hairs, and the empty spherical egg-cases are beauti-
fully iridescent. The Pieris brassicw, or White butterfly
(Fig. 13), lays an egg in shape very like the basket employed
in lobster-fishing, a rarer form than any of the preceding. It
is conical, and of considerable length ; the lid forms the base,
which is slightly recurved upon the sides, and a regular series
of ribs with cross-bars runs from end to end. The eggs are
of a primrose colour and cemented at the base to the back or
leaf of the plant in symmetrical order. The Epinephile janira,
or Meadow-brown butterfly (Fig. 14), lays a sub-conical egg,
considerably flattened towards the apex ; the raised ribs, which
stand away from the sides, have a silvery colour, and give to
the whole a corrugated appearance. The lid completely
occupies the top, and in a smaller inner circle the micropyle
is situated, which is better displayed when the lid is sepa-
rated from the egg, as shown at a. The Theda betulce, or
Brown-hair streak butterfly (Fig. 15) presents a perfectly
white, exquisitely formed, sub-conical egt? ; at first sight it

THE MICROSCOPE. (53

might be compared to a beautiful ivory-turned ball in
miniature. It is covered by a series of deep indentations or
pits, with regularly projecting spines. The egg of the Jodis
vernaria, or small Emerald Volute moth (Fig. 16), is remark-
able in form, which is somewhat oval, but flattened on the
broad side, of silvery whiteness, covered with minute reticula-
tions and dots, peculiarly translucent, so much so that the
little yellow-brown worm is seen curled up within, as shown
in the egg to the left. Fig. 17 is the egg of the Honey-bee,
showing the germinal vesicle.

THE MICROSCOPE.

•

THE invention of the microscope has opened a new world
to us. " It has been well observed/' says Professor Whewell,
" that about the same time when the invention of the tele-
scope showed us that there might be myriads of other worlds
claiming the Creator's care, the invention of the microscope
proved to us that there were in our own world myriads of
creatures, before unknown, which this care was preserving.
While one discovery seemed to remove the Divine Providence
further from us, the other gave us more striking examples
that it was far more active in our neighbourhood than we
had supposed ; while the first extended the boundaries of
God's known kingdom, the second made its known adminis-
tration more minute and careful.

" It appeared that in the leaf, and in the bud, in solids and
fluids, animals existed hitherto unsuspected ; the apparently
dead masses and blank spaces of the world were found to
swarm with life. And yet, of the animals thus revealed, all,
though unknown to us before, had never been forgotten by Pro-
vidence. Their structure, their vessels and limbs, their adap-
tation to the situation, their food and habitations, were
regulated in as beautiful and complete a manner as those of
the largest and apparently most favoured animals. The
smallest insects are as exactly finished, often as gaily orna-
mented, as the most graceful beasts, or birds of the brightest
plumage. And when we seem to go out of the domain of the
complex animal structure with which we are familiar, and
come to animals of apparently more scanty faculties and less
developed powers of enjoyment and action, we still find that
their faculties and their senses are in exact harmony with

i>4- (TKKKSITIES OF KNTOMOLOGY.

their situation and circumstances ; that the wants which they
have are provided for, and the powers which they possess
called -into action. We find, therefore, that Divine Provi-
dence is, in fact, extended over an immense succession of
tribes of beings, surpassing what we could have conceived or
expected ; and thus we may feel secure that the mere multi-
tude of created objects cannot remove us from the government
and superintendence of our Creator."

Upon examining the edge of a very keen razor with a
microscope, it will appear as broad as the back of a thick
knife : rough, uneven, full of notches and furrows. An
exceedingly small needle resembles a rough iron bar. But
the sting of a bee, seen through the same instrument, exhibits
everywhere a polish most amazingly beautiful, without the
least flaw, blemish, or inequality, and it ends in a point too
fine to be discerned. A small piece of exceedingly fine lawn
appears, through a microscope, like a hurdle or lattice, and
the threads themselves seem coarser than the yarn with
which ropes are made for anchors. But a silkworm's web
appears perfectly smooth and shining, and everywhere equal.
The smallest dot that can be made with a pen, appears, when
viewed by the microscope, an irregular spot, rough, .jagged,
and uneven. But the little specks on the wings or bodies of
insects are found to be most accurately circular. The finest
miniature paintings appear before this instrument as mere
daubings, plastered on with a trowel, entirely void of beauty,
either in the drawing or the colouring. The most even and
beautiful varnishes and polishings will be found to be mere
roughness, full of gaps and flaws. Thus sink the works of
art before the microscopic eye. But the nearer we examine
the works of God, even in the least of His productions, the
more sensible shall we be of His wisdom and power. Apply
the microscope to any, the most minute, of His works, nothing
is to be found but beauty and perfection. If we examine the
numberless species of insects that swim, creep, or fly around
us, what proportion, exactness, uniformity, and symmetry,
shall we perceive in all their organs ! what a profusion of
colouring! — azure, green, and vermilion, gold, silver, pearls,
rubies, and diamonds ; fringe and embroidery on their bodies,
wings, heads, and every other part ! How high the finishing !
how inimitable the polish we everywhere behold ! The most
perfect works of man betray a meanness, a poverty, an
inability in the workman ; but the works of nature plainly
prove that

"The liand that made them is Divine/'