pi^mmm I'^L^'l :. ^ VVrV^! 2s.wbh. V V \^ ; ' wlvnLJiL IS' -'if^PnjK s> »* V W v^ / - Ai^My|LA^ra^B| aHyjy^^ iify^'^lfsvi; IP^^ fe^iiJPill^^ ^^pf^PR^^t Swwl^^ iJ^jjMpm ^^^^PS |'^>^H^i^^%j Hm^uH '^^^i mkt' iKfll'^igij mw -?9^^s^> '^Iwi ffll Mi^,A,fe;i ^^<^^ -•'v'^:^ v«^v«wWWVvrvvwvv.''5g2j(Sf5CB£;^*^ LIBRARY OF 1685- l©5e L ' / . V- GENEKAi. Zoology (J/ SirSTEMATIC ^kTl^BAL HlSTOItl ^ li'oiu tlie lii'st Autliorities uiid luost select specimeus M^ HEATH S.' M^/ GRIFFITH. ^fy fg^:^ 'W ■§^ .n-tJC LdiuIoh. Printed for (T.Ive:ailev,Pleet Stieet. GENERAL ZOOLOGY. VOLUME VI. PART I. INSECTS. LONDON. PRINTED FOR GEORGE KEARSLEY, FLEET-STE EET3 BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHlTE-FRlARS. I8O6. CONTENTS OF .VOL. VI.— PART I* A PHIS GENUS - salicis . — miUefolii — rosse - tiliae Attelabus genus coryli — betulae .. apiarius Beetle^ Hercules Goliah CockchafFer ' variegated — — — golden Blatta genus — — — gigantea . orientalis Americana ■ ■ heteroclita Pagje 168 1/0 170 171 171 68 68 68 68 19 21 26 26 26 113 114 116 116 117 Page Butterfly, Priamus . 207 Antenor . 208 Hector . , 208 Sarpedon . 208 Menelaus . 208 Machaon . 209 Apollo , . 210 Picra . . 210 cratsegi . .211 ricini . .211 brassicae . 211 rhamni . . 211 Hyale . .211 Midamus . 212 Sophorce , 213 lo . . .212 Jurtina . . 213 Atalanta . 213 Paphia . . 213 malvae . .214 betulae . .214 Marsyas . . 214 VI CONTENTS. Bug, common • lineated . ■ thick-horned — — corticated •■ spiny ■ berry ■ larvated , ' henbane — ' — poplar broad-footed BUPRESTIS GENUS gigantea ■ stern icornis Chrj-'sis vittata rustiea ' salicis Byerhus genus scfophulariae Museorum Bruchus genus granarius ■■ seminarius Bactris . Cantharis genus — scarlet bipustulata — • flisca . — — livida . Cerambyx genus . longimanus •' damicornis 160 164 165 165 165 165 166 166 167 167 88 88 89 89 89 90 90 48 48 49 61 61 6] 61 81 81 81 82 S2 71 71 72 Cerambyx, Gigas . cinnamomeus — moschatus — coriarius — aedilis Cassida genus ■ — viridis — marginata — lateralis . — grossa 72 73 73 74 74 53 53 54 54 54 Chrysomela genus 57 populi . 5 J — asparagi 58 ■ graminis 58 — — • betulse . 58 — merdigera 58 boleti . 5g — Indica . 5Q Surinamensis 59 Gigas . 59 gibbosa 59 ■ gigantea 59 Coccinella genus . 55 septempunctata 5Q octodecim-punc- tata . . , . 55 Cicada genus . plebeja hsematodes ■ viridis •— epumaria . 149 1)9 152 152 153 Cicada sangiiinolenta ■ rliombea Chermes genus ' ■ alni pyri buxi Cockroach, great . oriental — — American heteroclite Coccus GENUS t — — — Adonidum Hesperidum • Cacti ilicis . — Polonicus • cataphractus ~ cqnchiformis Carabus genus . — • hortensis Tiolaceus — cupreus — crepitans Cicindela genus campestris sylvatica CURCULIO GENUS palmarum nucum ~ grananus — frumentarius regalia argentatus CONTENT*. 154 Curculio imperialis 154 186 186 187 188 114 116 116 117 189 18.(> 190 191 193 194 194 99 100 100 100 100 86 86 86 62 62 63 64 65 Dermestes genus lardarius ■ Pellio Dytiscus genus — — marginalis cinereus Ear-wig, common I Elater genus . flabellicornis oculatus , noctilucus ■ — ferrngineus — sanguinus - tesselatus Forficula genus auricularia Fulgora genus lanternaria . candelaria • diadema GliromerchafFer Glow-worm, common . Italian Gyrinus genus natator , Vll 63 66 67 31 31 32 91 .92 110 81 81 84 84 85 85 85 no 110 144 114 147 147 38 77 79 38 38 Till CONTENTS. Gryllus genus . migratorius — — — cristatus . Dux • viridissimus ■■ verrucivorus Gryllotalpa ■ monstrosus HiSTER GENUS . — unlcolor . '■■ 4-maculatus 12b 129 138 139 140 140 1-40 143 38 38 33 HyDROPHILUS GENUS 05 picens „ g5 caraboides Q8 Hydrophil ... 95 His PA GENUS , . .60 acculeata < . 60 LAMPYRIS GENUS . 77 noctiluca . 77 ■ Italica . 77 Lantern-Fly, Peruvian . 144 Chinese . 14/ — diadem . 147 LEPTURA GENUS . 74 arcuta . . 7^ arietis . . 74 ■ aquatica . 74 ' meridiana . 75 Locust, migratory . 129 Locust, crested ' ', . 138 great red-winged 139 green , . .140 verrucivorous . 140 mole-cricket . 140 monstrous . .143 LuCANUS GENUS . 27 — Cervus . 27 ' — inermis" . 2g Australasiae . 30 Mantis GENUS . .118 — oratoria . . 118 precaria . .120 gongyloides . 120 MORDELLA GENUS . 107 ' — aculeata . 107 Moth, Atlas . . . 223 Luna . , . 224 Junonia . . 225 — — peacock . . 225 Great Tiger . . 226 Puss . , . 22& brown-tail , , 228 mulberry , . 230 nupta . , . 236 elder . . . 237 — — — currant . . .23/ prasinana . . 237 farinalis . . 237 padella . . . 23» vestianella , .238 five-plumed , 239 — — twenty-plumed . 239 CONTENTS. >Ieloe genus . • Proscarabaeus scabrosus . vesicatorius Nepa genus — — — grandis ■ cinerea . — linearis Notonecta genus • ' " glauca ■ ■ striata 104 104 105 106 157 157 157 159 155 155 155 — minutissima 156 Papilio genus' — Priamus — ~ An tenor •— Hector — Sarpedon ' Menelaus ~— ~ Machaon Apollo • Piera Crataegi - ricini rhamui " — brassicae ■ Hyale • — Midamus — sophorae I . . Jurtina ■ Atalanta Paphia malvae — betulae 202 207 208 208 208 208 209 210 211 211 211 211 211 211 212 212 212 213 214 214 214 211 Papilio, Marsyas . Pausus genus . niicrocephalus sphaeroceros Phasma genus . ■~ — Gigas dilatatum siccifolium PHALiENA genus • — Atlas . — Luna . Junonia — ■ pavonia vinula — fuscicauda mori — nupta , — sambucaria — grossulariata — pra'sinana . — farinalis — padella — vestianella . hexadactyla — pentadactyla Ptinus genus fatidicus tesselatus ■ Fur . pectinicornis SCARAB.IIUS genus ■ Hercules IX 214 42 43 44 122 123 124 127 222 224 224 225 225 226 223 230 236 236 237 237 237 238 238 239 239 31 32 35 36 37 17 17 CONTENTS. Scarabaeus, Goliathus Melolontha —. FuUo . — — — - auratus SlLPHA GENUS Vespillo — — — Germanica ' thoracica — — — atrata Sphinx genus — — — ligustri ocellata — — — Atropos - - fillipendulse • apiformis . —— — crabroniformis 21 21 26 26 50 50 51 52 52 215 215 2l6 217 221 222 222 Staphylinus genus 108 • major . 108 • erythropterus . . . . . . 109 Staphylinus, murinus . 1 09 Stag-Beetle, common . 2/ — > unarmed . 29 Australasian 30 Si!k-Worra . . . 230 Tenebrio genus . 101 mortisagus 101 ■ globosus . 102 molitor . 103 Trips genus . . 198 physapus . .199 Weevil, palm ... 62 nut . . . 63 grain ... 64 corn ... 65 imperial . . 65 — — royal . , . GS —. silvery . . 67 Directions for placing the Plates in ml. VI. parti. The Vignette represents a highly singiilar and beautiful insect Ciilled Scarabivi/s Macrupus or Kangaroo Beetle. Its colour on the upper surface is a rich varnishy grass-green, and the under surface of a brilliant copper-coloiu:. This singular Beetle was received from Potosi, and is preserved in the elegant collection of Mr. Francillon of Norfolk-street. The specimen is believed to be unique. Plate 1 to face page 19 2 20 3 21 4 24 5 26 6 27 7 31 8 33 9 36 10 38 11 ZiJ 12 42 13 48 14 50 15 . 53 16 55 17 57 18 59 19 61 20 62 21 63 22 m Plate 23 to face page 68 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 •iQ 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 71 73 74 76 77 81 83 SQ 88 91 95 99 101 104 107 108 liO 113 118 120 121 Xll plate 45 to face page 124 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 125 127 129 138 140 143 144 149 155 157 159 101 168 186 190 191 193 Plate 63 to face page 198 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 202 207 208 210 211 212 213 214 216 217 217 218 225 230 236 237 ADVERTISEMENT. The present volume is intended as an Illu- stration of the Linnaean genera of Insects, with the history of the principal species. *^* The seventh and succeeding Volumes of this Work will proceed with all reasonable expedition. V.I. p. T. ERRATA— VOL. VI. PART L P. 153, line 2, dele the. P. 165, line 16, for acantbark read acantburus. ERRATA— VOL. VI. PART II. P. 378, line 9, according to more or less, read according to the mere or less P. 379, line 13, for in this division, read in tbisjirst di-uision. P. 146, line 9, for affirm, read affirms. INSECTS. X HE class of beings distinguished by the title of Insects, though far inferior in point of magni- tude, must be confessed to surpass in variety of structure and singularity of appearance all the larger branches of the animal world. Their ex- traordinary shapes, the surprising beauty and di- versity of their colours, and above all, the astonish- ing alteration of form which the generality of them undergo, conspire to constitute one of the most curious speculations which the science of natural history can exhibit, and may be said to realize all the fancied transformations recorded in the fictions of poetical romance. The general characters by which Insects are distinguished from other animals are these. First, they are furnished with several feet : secondly, the muscles are affixed to the internal surface of the skin, which is of a substance more or less strong, and sometimes very hard and horny : thirdly, they breathe not in the usual manner of the generality of larger animals, by lungs or gills, situated in the upper part of the body, but by a sort of spiracle* V. VI. p. I. 1 2 INSECTS. or breathing-holes, distributed in a series or row on each side the whole length of the abdomen; and these spiracles or breathing-holes are supposed to communicate with a continued chain, as it were, of lungs, or at least of parts analogous to them, distributed throughout the whole length of the body. The head is furnished with a pair of what are termed Antennce or horns, which are extremely various in the different tribes, and which, by their differences of structure form a leading character in the institution of the Genera or small assortments into which Insects are distributed. Among the older writers on Natural History, and even among some of the more modern, several animals are called by the name of Insects, which, in reality belong to a very different tribe of beings, as Snails, several kinds of Worms, and the smaller animals in general. What are termed Animal- cules in modern Natural History are also fre- quently confounded with insects, though in reality belonging to the very different tribe of Vermes or Worm-Like Animals. It is not intended at present to enter, with any degree of minuteness, upon the anatomical de- scription and philosophic history of Insects; since this has long ago been elucidated in almost all its branches by the labours of Swammerdam, Reau- mur, Roesel, and many other authors : to relate therefore what has been so often described may be thought in a great degree unnecessary: yet, on the other hand, it may with equal propriety be observed, that few who have not been particularly INSECTS. 3 conversant in this part of Natural History can be supposed to have studied these authors; and to such it should seem highly necessary to give at least some abridged description of the particulars most worthy of attention which have been dis- covered by those who have written professedly on the subject. It must be absolutely unnecessary in the present enlightened days of science to say any thing rela- tive to the ancient idea of what was termed the equivocal production of Insects, and their sup- posed or pretended origin from putrefaction. One single experiment of Redi, a celebrated physi-; cian and philosophic observer in the seventeenth century, must be fully sufficient to prove the ab- surdity of the doctrine entertained by the ancients. Let some animal flesh, for instance, be placed in an open vessel, and exposed to the air for some days; and let another vessel with the same kind of flesh in it be also placed with it, but instead of being exposed to the air, let it be covered with a piece of silk or fine gauze, tied over it. The con- sequence will be, that the flesh in the open vessel will in a short time abound with the larvie or maggots of flies, which have deposited their eggs on the meat; but, on opening the covered vessel, not the least appearance of such beings will be found, though the flesh be in the same state of putrefaction with the other. I know not that the truth of this experiment has ever been called in question; but if it has, it must have been owing to the experiment not having been properly con- 4 INSECTS'. ducted; for, supposing the flesh not to be abso- lutely fresh or recent when first put into the vessel, it is by no means improbable that some animal's eggs might have been deposited upon it before the experiment was made; in which case they would undoubtedly hatch in the vessel, and thus lead to a fallacy. Tiie flesh therefore must be perfectly fresh and well examined before it be put into the vessel. Still however an objection might be made on account of the legions of microscopic animal- cules which would probably appear, if the fluid parts of the flesh, even in the closed vessel, were accurately surveyed*. The ancients, exclusive of the former erroneous notion, entertained an idea that Insects were desti- tute of blood ; for which reason they called them animalia exsanguia or bloodless animals ; but this idea arose merely from their not having paid that minute attention to the study of Nature which distinguished the philosophers of the last and pre- sent century; and particularly to their not having had the advantage of the microscope. Insects are now well known to be so far from bloodless ani- mals that in many of them the circulation itself of the blood is most clearly and distinctly perceived. The blood of insects differs from that of the larger animals chiefly in colour, since in most insects it wants redness, being generally of a clear or watery * "We must also admit that some kinds of the cellular or hydatid taeniae might have taken up tlieir abode in the flesh, and these, to a person inconversant in Natural History, might appear an argument in favour of equivocal generation. INSECTS. 5 aspect, and sometimes green. The circulation of the blood is particularly conspicuous in Spiders, and in some species of Cimex or Bug, in which the vibrations and contractions of the arteries may also be distinctly observed*. The first state in which Insects appear is that of an ovum or egg. This relates to the generality of Insects ; for there are some few examples of vi- viparous Insects, as in the genus Aphis, Musca,&c. From the egg is hatched the insect in its second or caterpillar state, (though the term Caterpillar relates more particularly to the insects of one peculiar tribe.) This second state has been gene- rally known by the name of Eruca, but Linnaeus has changed it to that of Lan'Uy considering it as a sort of masked form or disguise of the Insect in its complete state. The Larvae or Caterpillars of insects differ very much from each other, accord- ing to the different tribes to which they belong. Those of the Butterfly and Moth tribe are gene- rally and emphatically known by the name of Caterpillars, and are universally known. Those of the Beetle tribe, except such as inhabit the waters, are of a thick, clumsy form, and the abdo- men is commonly of a heavy or bulging appear- ance. The Larvae of the Locust or Grasshopper tribe, and of some others of the same order, do not differ much in appearance from the complete Insect, except in being destitute of wings. The Larvae of Flies, Bees, and many others, are gene- * Especially in the Cimex lectularius or common bug. 6 INSECTS. rally known by the name of maggots, and are of a thick and short form. Those of Dragon-Flies, Dytisci or Water-Beetles, and many other Insects, are of highly singular forms, and differ perhaps more from that of the complete insect than any others except those of the Butterfly tribe. Some Insects undergo no change of shape, but are hatched from the egg complete in all their parts, and undergo no farther alteration than that of casting their skin from time to time, "^ill at length they acquire the complete resemblance of the parent animal. It is in the Larva or caterpillar state that most insects are peculiarly voracious, as in many of the common caterpillars of Moths and Butterflies. In their complete state some insects, as Butterflies for instance, are satisfied with the lightest and most delicate nutriment, while others, as several Beetles, Dragon-Flies, &c. &c. devour animal and vegetable substances with a considerable degree of avidity. When the time arrives in which the Larva or caterpillar is to change into the next state, viz. that of Chrysalis or Pupa, it ceases to feed, and having placed itself in some quiet situation for the purpose, lies still for several hours, and then by a kind of laborious effort, frequently repeated, divests itself of its external skin, or larva coat, and immediately appears in the very different form of a chrysalis or pupa. The Pupa, or Chrysalis, differs in the different tribes of Insects almost as much as the Larva. lu INSECTS. 7 most of the Beetle tribe it is furnished with short legs, capable of some degree of motion, though very rarely exerted. In the Butterfly tribe it is perfectly destitute of all appearance of legs, and has no other motion than a mere lateral bending or writhing when touched. In the LOcust tribe it differs but very little from the perfect Insect, ex- cept in not having the wings complete. In most of the Fly tribe it is perfectly oval, without any apparent motion, or distinction of parts. The Pupte of the Bee tribe, and other Insects of a similar cast are less shapeless than those of Flies, exhibiting the faint or imperfect appearance of the limbs. Those of the Libellulae or Dragon- Flies are locomotive, as in the Locust tribe, but differ most widely from the appearance of the complete Insect, and may be numbered among the most singular in the whole class of Insects. I should here observe that the Linnaean term Pupay which most modern entomologists substi- tute for that of Chrysalis, was given from the indistinct resemblance which many insects bear in this state to a doll^ or a child when swathed up according to the old fashion. From the Pupa or Chrysalis emerges at length the Insect in its complete or ultimate form, from which it can never change, nor can it receive any further increase of growth. This last or perfect state of an Insect is, in the Linnaean language, termed Imago. This surprizing alteration of shape during the different periods of an Insect's life, is to be con- INSECTS. sidered as an evolution or successive display of parts before concealed. Thus Swammerdam de- clares that he could demonstrate • all the parts of the future Butterfly even in the body of the cater- pillar itself. The truth of this experiment of Swammerdam has been sometimes vehemently ■doubted, and even denied by some; especially as it is difficult, at first, to discover these parts even in the chrysalis or pupa, v^^hich is a step nearer to the complete Insect. But in reality, there seems to be but small reason for questioning the truth of Swammerdam's observation ; and it may be readily conceived that, by a very accurate and- delicate investigation, the rudiments of the future fly may be distinguished in the Caterpillar, if observed a few hours before its transformation into a chrysalis. Insects possess some particular parts which are not to be found in any of the larger animals. Among these are the Antennce before mentioned, which are generally termed the horns. They are those processes or jointed bodies situated on each side the head. The use of these parts is not entirely understood*. It has by some been ima- gined that they are the instruments of hearing. They difler Extremely in the different tribes of Insects, and are found to constitute one of the most convenient parts to fix upon in the distribu- tion of Insects into genera and species. It is * See a highly learned and ingenious dissertation entitled, " De Semibus externis Animaliu7n Exangiiiu7)t," by Mr. M. C. Gottlieb Lehman, published at Gottingen in the year 1798. INSECTS. ^ therefore necessary slightly to enumerate their differences. ylntemia setacea, or setaceous Antenna, means one which is shaped like a bristle, or which grows extremely fine and sharp at its termination. Antenna Jiliformis, or thread-shaped, differs from the former in being of equal diameter through- out, or not visibly smaller at the tip than in other parts. Antenna moniliformis, or moniliform, is that in which the joints are shaped like the beads of a necklace, each joint being globular or nearly so. Antenna cla'vata, clavated or club-shaped, is one which thickens at the tip into a knob or small club, as in the major part of Butterflies. Anteiina Jissiiis, or fissile, is one which is split or divided at the tip into several lamellae or flat separations, as in the Beetles strictly so called, or Scarabaei. Antenna pecfinata, or pectinated, means one which is divided along each side into numerous processes in such a manner as to resemble the teeth of a comb, as may be observed in many of the Moth tribe. Antetma harbata, or bearded, is one which is slightly feathered, either on one or both sides, with fine lateral fibres or hairs. Antenna perfoUata, or perfoliate, is one in which the joints are of a flattened and circular shape, with the stem or body of the antenna passing through them, as in the leaves of some plants, which are called perfoliate from a similar circum~ 10 INSECTS. Stance, viz. the stem seeming to pass through the leaves. This kind of Antenna is exemplified in some of the shell-winged or Beetle tribe. Another part peculiar to Insects consists in a pair or two of short, jointed processes proceeding from the mouth : they are termed Palpi or Feelers, and are very conspicuous in some insects, and much less so in others. The Mouth in insects is generally situated at the lower part of the front, and varies much in structure in the different orders. In the Beetle tribe it is furnished with very strong jaws, often notched or serrated on the inner side into the ap- pearance of teeth: this is also the case in Locusts and many other insects. In some the mouth consists of a tube or instrument for suction, either simple, or variously sheathed and guarded by dif- ferent kinds of appendages. In such insects as have jaws, it is observable that they do not meet per- pendicularly, as in quadrupeds and birds, but horizontally. So great is the variety in the structure of the mouth in the different tribes of Insects, that a celebrated Entomologist (Fabricius,) has formed his System from this part in preference to any other. It must be observed however, that this mode of arranging insects is attended with much difficulty, and seems far inferior to the obvious and easy characters which distinguish the Linnaean distribution. The Eyes in Insects are commonly situated on each side the head, and are two in number j but INSECTS. 11 in some insects, as in Spiders, they are six or eight in number. In the major part of the Insect tribe the eyes may be considered as compounds at least with respect to the exterior coat or cornea, which, when viewed with a mi- croscope, presents the appearance of an infinite number of separate convexities, which are of a shape exactly hexagonal, and a})pear to be so many real convex lenses or glasses; but the exact manner in which vision is performed in Insects is perhaps not yet ascertained. Some have supposed each of the hexagonal lenses to act as a real and separate eye, and that the optic nerves are ex- panded in separate branches at the bottom of each as a retina; or that one universal retina is expanded under all, which probably, is the real structure. Yet it still remains difficult to account for this prodigious multitude of eyes on the head of one single animal. The head of the common Libellula or Dragon-Fly is perhaps furnished with not less than twenty-five thousand of these little lenses. Whatever be their use, this particular structure cannot be contemplated without the highest admiration, and constitutes one of the most curious particulars in the comparative ana- tomy of Insects. That they are real convex lenses seems demonstrated by their exhibiting every phenomenon of such; inverting any object viewed through them when magnified, as the flame of a candle, the chimney of a house, or any other object towards which they are directed; and that they are double-convex lenses has been generally 22 INSECTS. concluded Irom the appearance of a lateral section of the cornea, in which the convexities of the sides of each lens have appeared similar*. The celebrated Swammerdam is of opinion that vision is not performed by each lens as a separate eye, as in quadrupeds, &c. but that it is excited, as he expresses himself, by the mere appulseof the rays of light on the lenses, which thus convey the idea of the object. He also observes, that under every lens is a hexagonal cone of fibres, the base of the cone corresponding to the size of each lens. Dr. Hook maintains that each lens is convex on the external, and concave on the internal side. Besides the eyes just described, there are on the heads of many Insects three small, smooth, lucid globules resembling so many separate eyes, placed on the top of the head, between or above the lateral ones. These parts Linnasus distin- guishes by the title of Stemmata. Their real na- ture is not yet very clearly understood. The existence of the Brain in insects is denied by Linnaeus, but by this he can only be supposed to mean that it does not bear much resemblance to that of the larger animals. * Some insist that they are so many magnifying Menisci of unequal spheres, the exterior or convex part of each being a portion of a smaller sphere than the concave or interior part. The accurate Roesel represents the supposed convexity of both sides, but candidly confesses that he cannot absolutely determine the point. The late eminent optician Mr. Benjamin Martin, in an ingenious treatise on the nature of vision in Insects, insists on their being double convex lenses, and has represented th* proportional convexity in the eye of the Dragon- Fly. INSECTS. 13^ The Body in the major part of Insects is divid- ed into the thorax or upper part, and the abdo- men or lower part. In many of the Beetle tribe the back of the thorax is distinguished by a small triangular piece or division, situated at its lower part, between the juncture of the wing-sheaths : this triangular part is termed Scutellum or escutcheon. The under part of the thorax is Called the breast, or Pectus, and in this the sternum is frequently distinguishable. The abdomen is marked into transverse sections, and the last joint terminates in the tail, or pointed extremity. The wing- sheaths or shelly coverings, in the Beetle tribe and some others, are termed Elytra or Coleoptra. The Limbs, in the major part of Insects, consist of three principal divisions; viz. the upper joint. Femur or thigh, the second joint. Tibia or leg, and the third. Tarsus or foot, which commonly consists of several small articulations, and is terminated by a dilated tip, with two liooked claws. In many Insects there are two small parts re- sembling minute bladders, fixed on a slender, short stem, and situated one under each wins:; these parts are called Ilalteres, balancers, or poisers, and are only to be found in the two- winged insects : their supposed use is to keep the Insect steady during its flight, since if one of them be cut off, the animal flies with an unsteady motion. The majority of Insects are observed to be an- nual; finishing the whole term of their lives in the space of a year or less ; and many da pot live 14 INSECIS. half that timej nay there are some which do not survive many hours; but this latter period is to be understood only of the animals when in their complete or ultimate form, for the larvae of such as are of this short duration have in reality lived a very long time under water, of which they are natives 3 and it is observed that water-insects in general are of longer duration than land-insects. Some few insects however in their complete state are supposed to live a considerable time, as Bees for instance; and it is well known that some of the Butterfly tribe, though the major. part perish before Avinter, will yet survive that season in a state of torpidity, and again appear and fly abroad in the suceeding spring. Spiders are also said to live a considerable time, and some species of the genus Cancer are said to live several years, especially the common Lobster, &c. It should be observed however that these animals, in the opinion of some modern naturalists, constitute a different tribe of beings from Insects properly so called. I must not dismiss this slight introduction to the survey of Insects without observing that this branch of Natural History has above all others been subject to the ridicule which has so fre- quently been bestowed on the investigation of that science in general. Even those who from their superior genius and talents might have been supposed to have held every branch of science in its proper degree of estimation, have occasion- INSECTS. ] 5 ally given way to a temporary sally of contempt at the historians of the minuter productions of Nature. Thus the celebrated Count de Buffon, happening not to have had any particular ad- diction to the study of Insects, has not scrupled to hint in strong and striking terms his opinion of its inferiority compared with the study of the greater and more conspicuous parts of the creation. " Who," says this celebrated writer, " gives us the grandest and most magnificent ideas of the Creator of the Universe ? he who represents him, in the plenitude of his power, directing the formation of suns and of planets, and guiding the revolutions of worlds, or he who discovers him busied in regulating the oeconomy of an hive of bees, or deeply engaged in folding the wings of a beetle ?'» Other philosophers however, of the most exalted character, have expressed a widely different opi- nion. The great Boyle declares that for his own part his wonder was more excited by the con- templation of a mite than by that of an elephant ; and adds, in a phrase somewhat singular, that his admiration dwelt not so much on the clocks as on the watches of Nature; and the opinion of Plin}^ which Linnaeus takes for the motto of his volume on Insects is evident from his own words. In his tarn parvis tamqiic fere niillis quce ratio ! quanta .ms ! quam inextricabilis perfectio ! l6 INSECTS. Insects are divided by Linnaeus into seven orders or distributions. The first order is entitled Coleoptera, and contains all those insects whose wings are guarded by a pair of strong, horny, exterior cases or coverings, under which the wings are folded up when at rest. These insects, in common language, are called Beetles, though in reality that term, as we shall soon fmd, is to be restricted in science to one particular genus. The wing-sheaths or horny coverings are some- times called coleoptra, but more generally elytra. The Coleopterous Insects form a very large or. extensive order. The second division of Insects is termed Hemip- tera or half-winged. That is, the upper part of the wing-sheaths in this tribe is of a tough or leathery texture, and the lower part membranace- ous. Sometimes almost the whole wing-cover is leathery, but of a softer texture than in the Coleoptera. The insects contained in this divi- sion are very various j all the Locusts or Grass- hoppers, the Cicadas, and a great many others. It is to be observed that the wing-covers in this order cross each other when closed, instead of meeting in a direct line. The third order is termed Lepidoptera or scaly- winged. It consists of the insects commonly termed Butterflies and Moths. The powder on the wings of these insects has been generally de- scribed by microscopical writers as consisting of small feathers; but in reality it consists rather of INSECTS. 17 minute scales, of various shapes and sizes on the different species, and even on the different parts of the same animal. Tlieir general appearance is more or less fan-shaped, and they are disposed in the manner of tiles on a roof, lapping over each other. The fourth order is called Neuroptera, or nerve- winged. The insects of this order are remarkable for the reticulated appearance of the wings, the fibres running into ramifications and decussations over the whole surface. Thi-s order is exemplified in the Libellulae or Dragon-Flies, &c. in which this character is remarkably conspicuous: the wings are always four in number. The fifth order is called Hymenoptera, and con- sists of insects furnished with four membranaceous wings, and also with a sting, or a process resem- bling one. It is exemplified in the well-known in- sects of the Bee and Wasp tribe and many others. The sixth o-rder is entitled Diptera, and contains such insects as are furnished with two wings only. In this order rank Flies, strictly so called, as well as Gnats, and a great variety of other insects. The seventh and last order is termed Aptera, and consists of such insects as are totally destitute of wings, as Spiders, Centipedes or Scolopendrae, Fleas, and many others. To this order also belong the numerous species of the Crab and Lobster tribe, which by some naturalists are excluded from the class of Insects. It may be here observed, in order to prevent mistakes, that some of the Cole- opterous Insects are destitute of wings, having V. VI. p. I. 2 as INSECTS. only the upper sheaths or elytra ^ yet by no means belong to the present order of Aptera. In some few species of Insects it will also be found that one sex is winged, while the other is apterous, as in some of the Moth tribe. The Aphides also, in the order Hemiptera, are known to have some individuals of the same species winged, and others wingless. These instances may sometimes mislead a beginning entomologist; but he will very soon learn to distinguish the real tribe to which the insect belongs, and will not hastily refer it to the Aptera. 1 INSECTS. ORDER COLOPTERx\. S CAR AB.EUS. BEETLE. Generic Character. Antenna clavatoe, capitulo fissili. Tibice saepius dentatse. Corpus crassum, compact- um. Antenna or horns clavate, with a fissile tip. Legs generally toothed. Body thick and compact. X HIS genus is extremely extensive. Among the most remarkable species is the Scarabceus Hercules or Hercules Beetle, which sometimes measures not Less than five, or even six inches in length: the wing-shells are of a smooth surface, of a blueish or brownish grey colour, sometimes 20 BEETLE. nearly black, and commonly marked with several small, round deep-black spots, of different sizes: the head and limbs are coal-black: from the upper part of the breast or thorax proceeds a horn or process of enormous length in proportion to the body: it is sharp at the tip, where it curves slightly downwards, and is marked beneath by two or three denticulations, and furnished throughout its whole length with a fine, short, velvet-like pile, of a brownish orange-colour : from the front of the head proceeds also a strong horn, about two thirds the length of the former, toothed on its upper sur- face but not furnished with any of the velvet-like pile which appears on the former. This species is a native of several parts of South America, where great numbers are said to be sometimes seen on the tree called the Mammaea*, rasp- ing off the rind of the slender branches by work- ing nimbly round them with the horns, till they cause the juice to flow, which they drink to intoxication, and thus fall senseless from the tree. This however, as the learned Fabricius has well observed, seems not very probable; since the thoracic horn, being bearded on its lower surface, would undoubtedly be made bare by this opera- tion. This species, from the large size of all its parts, affords an admirable example of the cha- racters of the genus. It varies much in size, and it may even be doubted whether some of the smaller specimens have not been occasionally re- * Mammaea Americana. Lin, Mamraee Tree. Brown Jam. HCAM^BJ^V^o fT^ JL:a^ j-cu^. lSo fif, Ccif.i L£>nilorL,Tui*lus'Ji£^ h\ &^€'at\ri£y^lcecStre^. BEETLE. 2 1 garded by authors as distinct species. The female is destitute both of the frontal and thoracic horn, but in other points resembles tiie male. The Goliah Beetle, IScarabieus GoUathus, is highly remarkable both in point of size and colour: it is larger in body than the preceding, and has a rose-coloured thorax, marked with lon- gitudinal black stripes or variegations, and purple- brown wing-sheaths: the head is divided in front into two forked processes: the limbs are black, and very strong. It is a native of some parts of Africa. A supposed variety sometimes occurs, in which both the thorax and wing-sheaths are of a pale yellowish brown instead of rose-colour, and are marked with Ijlack variegations. One of the most common European Beetles is the Cockchaffer, or Scarahceus Melolontha. This insect is extremely familiar in our own island, the larva or caterpillar inhabiting ploughed lands, and feeding on the roots of corn, &c. and the complete insect making its appearance during the middle and the decline of summer. The Cockchaffer sometimes appears in such prodigious quantities as almost to strip the trees of their foliage, and to produce mischiefs nearly approaching to those of the Locust tribe. It appears from a paper by a Mr. Molineux, printed in the Philosophical Trans- actions for the year 1697, that some particular districts in Ireland were overrun by this insect in a wonderful manner. The account runs as follows. " These insects were first noticed in this kingdom in 1688. They appeared on the South-west coast 22 BEETLE. of Galway, brought thither by a south-west wind, one of the most common, I might almost say trade-winds, of this country. From hence they penetrated into the inland parts towards Hedd- ford, about twelve miles north of the town of Gal way: here and there in the adjacent country multitudes of them appeared among the trees and hedges in the day-time, hanging by the boughs in clusters, like bees when they swarm. In this posture they continued, with little or no motion, during the heat of the sun; but towards evening or sunset they would all disperse and fly about with a strange humming noise like the beating of distant drums, and in such vast numbers that they darkened the air for the space of two or three miles square. Persons travelling on the roads, or abroad in the fields, found it very uneasy to make their way through them, they would so beat and knock themselves against their faces in their flight, and with such a force as to make the place smart, and leave a slight mark behind them. In a short time after their coming, they had so entirely eat up and destro3^ed all the leaves of the trees for some miles round, that the whole country, though in the middle of summer, was left as bare as in the depth of winter ; and the noise they made in snawino: the leaves made a sound much resem- bling the sawing of timber. They also came into the gardens and destroyed the buds, blossoms, and leaves of all the fruit-trees, so that they were left perfectly naked; nay many that were more delicate than the rest, lost their sap as well i^ BEETLE. 23 leaves, and quite withered away, so that they never recovered again. Their multitudes spread so exceedingly that they infested houses, and be- came extremely offensive and troublesome. Their numerous young, hatched from the eggs which they had lodged under ground, near the surface of the earth, did still more harm in that close re- tirement than ail the flying swarms of their parents had done abroad; for this destructive brood, lying under ground, eat up the roots of corn and grass, and thus consumed the support both of man and beast. This plague was happily checked several ways. High winds and wet misling weather destroyed many millions of them in a day; and when this constitution of thaair pre- vailed, they were so enfeebled that they would let go their hold, and drop to the ground from the branches, and so little a fall as this was sufficient quite to disable, and sometimes perfectly kill them. Nay it was observable that, even when they were most vigorous, a slight blow would for some time stun them, if not deprive them of life. During these unfavourable seasons of the weather, the swine and poultry of the country would watch under the trees for their falling, and feed and fatten upon them; and even the poorer sort of the country people, the country then labouring under a scarcity of provision, had a way of dressing them, and lived upon them as food. In a little time it was found that smoke was another thing very offensive to them, and by burning heath, fern, &c. tlie gardens were secured, or if the 24 BEETLE. insects had already entered, they were thus driven out again. Towards the latter end of summer they returned of themselves, and so totally disap- peared, that in a few days you could not see one left. A year or two ago, all along the South West Coast of the county of Galway, for some miles together, there were found dead on the shore such infinite multitudes of them, and in such vast heaps, that, by a moderate estimate, it was com- puted there could not be less than forty or fifty horse-loads in all; which was a new colony, or a supernumerary swarm from the same place whence the first stock came, in 1688, driven by the wind from their native land, which I conclude to be Normaqdy or Britany in France, it being a country much infested with this insect, and from whence England heretofore has been pestered in a similar manner with swarms of this vermin; but these, meeting with a contrary wind, before they could land, were stopped, and, tired with the voyage, were all driven into the sea, which, by the motion of its waves and tides, cast their float- ing bodies in heaps on the shore. It is observed that they seldom keep above a year together in a place, and their usual stages or marches are com- puted to be about six miles in a year. Hitherto their progress has been westerly, following the course of that wind which blows most commonly in this country." It is recorded by Moufiet, in his History of Insects, that in the year 1574, in the month of February, so great a quantity of these insects S VA.'RAIE.^T^B . WV/ZW/z^/.^VcV 7V//.V i* ^ 5^^ ^ Xarvii Tupa itcx CttriLcnJcn.riil-li^^'d l-v &.Starshv J^lttr Slr^ft . BEETLE. 25 were driven into the river Severn, that they totally prevented the mills from working, and were with difficulty extirpated by the united efforts of the people, and the various kinds of hawks, ducks, and other birds, which preyed upon them with avidity. In Normandy, according to the same author, they generally make their appearance every third year. In our own i.sland the county of Norfolk seems occasionally to have suffered most from the ra- vages of the Cockchaffer. In the year 1751 in particular many crops are said to have been de- stroyed by it. The larva or caterpillar of this insect is said to be two, and sometimes three years, in passing from its first form into that of the perfect insect. The eggs are laid in small detached heaps beneath the surface of some clod, and the young, when first hatched, are scarcely more than the eighth of an inch in length, gradually advancing in their growth, and occasionally shifting their skins, till they arrive at the length of near two inches. At this period they begin to prepare for their change into a chrysalis or pupa, selecting for the purpose some small clod of earth, in which they form an oval cavity, and, after a certain space, divest themselves of their last skin, and immediately ap- pear in the chrysalis form, in which they con- tinue till the succeeding summer, when the Beetle emerges from its retirement, and commits its de- predations on the leaves of trees, &c. breeds, and deposits its eggs in a flivourable situation, after which its life is of very short duration. 26 BEETLE. A much more elegant insect of this kind is the Scarabceus Fullo or Variegated Beetle. It is nearly twice the size of the Cockchafler, and of an elegant chesniit-colour, with the wing-sheaths beautifully marbled with white variegations. It is common in many parts of Europe, but extremely rare in England. A species of peculiar beauty is the Golden Beetle, Scarabceus auratus ; it is about the size of the common or black garden beetle, but of a somewhat flatter shape; and of the most brilliant, varnished golden-green colour, with the wing- shells varied towards the lower part by a few slight, transverse, white streaks. This beautiful species is not uncommon during the hottest part of summer, frequenting various plants and flowers; its larva or caterpillar is commonly found in the hollows of old trees, or among the loose dry soil at their roots, and sometimes in the earth of ant-hills. It remains about three years before it changes to a pupa or chrysalis, out of which the insect emerges in a short times afterward. This may be sufficient for a general idea of the Linnaean genus Scarabceus. It may be added that the species are extremely numerous, and that so great is the singularity of appearance in many kinds, that even the most romantic imagination can hardly conceive a structure of horn or process wliich is not exemplified in some of the tribe. SCABAB/EF5. Srar./'if^/o. Jf,(?fryTtt^_^. •*\xJf/. iSc^.Cct^i LcfuiviL fui'iirh*fii l* Ij. /rtcw.fl^t ITt^r^ i'^-e^.t: XiTTAisnrs, Luranns Icrviu'i. 7Sr.%.0itVi r.fn<)^r, /-uth-.fhfd iy C.Kfarslty.Flffr ftreet LUCANUS. STAG-CHAFFER. Generic Character, AntenntB clavatae : clava conipressa latere hitiore pectinato-iissili. Maxilla porrecta, exsertae, deutataj. Antenna clavated, Avith compressed tip, divided into lamellae on the inner side. /d!W5 stretched forwards, ex- serted, and tootlied. X HIS genus, as the reader will perceive by at- tend iiig to the generic character, differs chiefly from the preceding in having the jaws consider- ably elongated, so as to give the appearance of a pair of denticulated horns ; while the antennae terminate in a laterally-flattened tip, divided on the interior side into several lamellae. The principal species is the Lucanus Cei^vus, commonly known by the name of the Stag-Beetle, or Stagchafter. It is the largest of all the Euro- pean coleopterous insects, sometimes measuring near two inches and a half in length, from the tips of the jaws to the end of the body. Its general colour is a deep chesnut, with the thorax and head, which is of a squarish form, of a blacker cast: and the jaws are often of a brighter or red- der chesnut-colour than the wing-shells: the legs 28 STAG-CHAFFER. and under-parts are coal-black, and the wings, which, except during flight, are concealed under the shells, are large, and of a fine pale yellowish- brown. This remarkable insect is chiefly found in the neighbourhood of oak trees, delighting in the sweet exsudatiou or honey-dew so frequently observed on the leaves. Its larva, which perfectly resembles that of the genuine Beetles, is also found in the hollows of oak trees; residing in the fine vegetable mould usually seen in such cavities,, and feeding on the softer parts of the decayed wood. It is of very considerable size, of a pale yellowish or whitish brown colour, and when stretched out at full length, measures nearly four inches*. Its general posture however is the curved one exhibited in the annexed plate. When arriv- ed at its full size, which, according to some, is hardly sooner than the fifth or sixth year, it forms, by frequently turning itself, and moistening it with its glutinous saliva, a smooth oval hollow in the earth in which it lies, and afterwards remaining per- fectly still for the space of near a month, divests itself of its skin, and commences pupa or chrysalis. It is now of a shorter form than before, of a rather * It has been supposed by Roesel, and not without a consider- able degree of probability, that these Larvae were tlie Cossi of the ancient Romans, whichj according to Pliny, were in high esteem as an article of luxury. What renders this supposition the more probable is that the larvae of a species of Cerambyx, as well as of a Curculio, are well known to be greatly admired by the inhabitants of the West Indian islands, and are frequently collected at a great expence, as a highly delicate dish, being broiled or fried for that purpose. STAG-CHAFFER. 2^ deeper colour, and exliibits in a striking manner tlie rudiments of the large extended jaws and broad head so conspicuous in the perfect insect: the legs are also proportionally larger and longer than in the larva state. The l)all of earth in which this chrysalis is contained is considerably larger tlian a hen's eggy and of a rough exterior surface, but perfectly smooth and polished within. The chrysalis lies about three months before it gives birth to the complete insect, which usually emerges in the months of July and August, The time however of this insect's growth and appear- ance in all its states varies much, according to the difference of seasons. It is not very uncommon in many parts of England. The commonly supposed female differs so much in appearance from the male, that it has by some authors been considered as a distinct species. It is not only smaller than the former, but totally destitute of the long and large ramified jaws, in- stead of which it has a pair of very short curved ones, slightly denticulated on their inner side: the head is also of considerably smaller diameter than the thorax. In point of colour it resembles the former. Among those who consider it as a distinct species may be numbered the ingenious Mr, Marsham, F. L, S. who, in his Entomologia Britannica, assures us that the real female insect extremely resembles the male, but is smaller, and wants the larger denticulation on the inner side of each horn. The generally supposed female he distinguishes by the title of Lucanus inennls, L. 30 STAG-CHAFFER. convexiis brunneus^ maiilUs brevibus : dente lateralt elevato. Tlie exotic species of this genus are mostly na- tives of America, and one in particular, frequently found in Virginia, is so nearly allied to the English Stag-Beetle as hardly to ditfer, except in having fewer denticulations or divisions on the jaws. A highly elegant species has lately been dis- covered in New Holland. This differs from the rest in being entirely of a beautiful golden green colour, with short, sharp-pointed, denticulated jaws of a brilliant copper-colour. The whole length of the Insect is rather more than an inch. 7- BERMESTER jAaTdarius JD. Jfurinus I -D. TTndatus If Fellio D.rcllio J). Muri/uis Antenna, j/fo,^ OctuZoiuii>n.rub(i/))f(i fy' e.A'caislc\- fleet Stmct. DERMESTES. LEATHER-CHAFFER. Genetic Character. Antenrue clavatae, capitulo perfoliato: articulistribus crassioribus. Thorax convexus, vix mar- ginatus. Caput sub thorace inflexum condens. Antennae clavated, with per- foliate tip, the three last joints being larger than the rest. Thorax convex, scarce or very slightly margined. Head withdrawn at pleasure beneath the thorax. JL HIS genus consists chiefly of small insects. Their larvae are found among skins, furs, and vari- ous animal substances, of a dry kind, which they gradually injure, and are numbered among the most destructive insects in Museums, devouring specimens of birds, quadrupeds, collections of dried plants, &c.: they are of a lengthened oval shape, and more or less hairy, especially towards the end of the body, where, in some, the hairs form a kind of spreading tuft, which the animal raises on being suddenly disturbed. The complete insects are mostly of a lengthened oval shape, and have a habit of withdrawing the head be- neath the thorax when handled. One of the most familiar species is the Dermestes lardariusy which is about a third of an inch in length, and of a 32 LEATHER-CHAFFER. dusky brown colour, with the upper half of the wing-shells whitish or ash-coloured, marked with black specks. The larva is often found about dried or salted meat, lard, &c. &c. Another species, seen in almost every house during the early part of the spring and summer, is the Dermestes PeUio. It is smaller than the preceding, measuring scarcely a quarter of an inch in length, and is of a very dark brown or blackish colour, with a white speck on the middle of each wing-shell. 8 J'T-i:s'rs. J^ Ta/ziy/r/i.y ma/jmn^d * I^tiriJis Taddiciis iSp^.Oa^:iLrn.^in.ruA/MAe,/f•_y h. Eear-.-Zn. rfe^fFSrrf^/^. PTINUS. PTINUS. Generic Character. Antennte filiformes ; articu- lis ultimis majoribus. Thorax subrotundus, im- marginatus, caput exci- piens. Antennee filiform, with the three last joints largest. Thorax roundish, without distinct margin, receiving occasionally the head. A HE genus Ptiniis, like that of Dermestes, con- sists of small insects which, in general, have simi- lar habits, living both in their larva and complete state among dry animal substances, and some species in dry wood, committing great havock among the older articles of furniture, which they pierce with innumerable holes, thus causing their gradual destruction. To this genus belongs the celebrated Insect distinguished by the title of the Death- Watch, or PtinusfaticUcus. Among the popular superstitions which the almost general illumination of modern times has not been able to obliterate, the dread of the Death- Watch may well be considered as one of the most predominant, and still continues to disturb the habitations of rural tranquillity with groundless fears and absurd apprehensions. It is not indeed to be imagined that they who are en- V. VI. r. I. 3 34 PTINUS. gaged in the more important cares of providing the immediate necessaries of life should have either leisure or inclination to investigate with philosophic exactness the causes of a particular sound: yet it must be allowed to be a very sin- gular circamstance that an animal so common should not be more universally known, and the peculiar noi^e which it occasionally makes be more universally understood. It is chiefly in the advanced state of spring that this alarming little animal com.mences its sound, which is no other than the call or signal by which the male and female are led to each other, and which may be considered as analogous to the call of birds j though not owing to the voice of the insect, but to its beating on any hard substance with the shield or fore-part of its head. The prevailing number of distinct strokes which it beats is from seven to nine or eleven ; which \ ery circumstance may perhaps still add in some degree to the ominous character which it bears among the vulgar. These sounds or beats are given in pretty quick suc- cession, and are repeated at uncertain intervals ; and in old houses where the insects are numerous, may be heard at almost every hour of the day ; especially if the weather be warm. The sound exactly resembles that which may be made by beating moderately hard with the nail on a table. The insect is of a colour so nearly resembling that of decayed wood, viz. an obscure greyish brown, that it may for a considerable time elude the search of the enquirer. It is about a quarter of PTINUS. 35 ail inch in length, and is moderately thick in pro- portion, and the wing-shells are marked with numerous irregular variegations of a ligliter or greyer cast than the ground-colour. In the twentieth and twenty-second volume of the Philo- sophical Transactions may he found a description of this species hy the celebrated Derham, with some very just observations relative to its habits and general appearance ; and it seems singular that so remarkable an insect should have almost escaped the notice of more modern entomologists. In the twelfth edition of the Systema Nuiarae of Linnaeus it does not appear ; but is probably the Dennestes tesselatus of Fabricius, in which case he seems to have placed it in a wrong genus. Ridi- culous, and even incredible as it may appear, it is an animal that may in some measure be tamed: at least it may be so far familiarized as to be made to beat occasionally, by taking it out of its confinement, and beating on a table or board, when it will readily answer the noise, and will continue to beat as often as required. We must be careful not to confound this ani- mal, which is the real Death- Watch of the vulgar, emphatically so called, with a much smaller insect of a very different genus, which makes a sound like the ticking of a watch, and continues it for a long time without intermission. It belongs to a tbtall}^ different order, and is the Termes pulsa- torium of Linnaeus. I cannot conclude this slight account of the Death-Watch without quoting a sentence from 36 PTINUS. that celebrated work the Pseudodoxia Epidemica of the learned Sir Thomas Brown, who on this subject expresses himself in words like these. " He that could eradicate this error from the minds of the people would save from many a cold sweat the meticulous heads of nurses and grand- mothers*." ) A very destructive little species of Ptinus is often seen in collections of dried plants, &c. &c. reniarkablp for the ravages it commits both in its larva and perfect state. The larva resembles that of a beetle in miniature, being about the eighth of an inch long, and of a thickish form, lying with the body bent, and is of a white colour. The perfect insect i? very small, measuring only about the tenth of an inch, and is slender, of a pale yellowish chesnut colour, appearing, when magni- fied, beset with small short hairs, with the wing- covers finely striped by rows of small impressed points or dots. The ravages of the larva are most remarkable during the summer. The Ptinus Fur of Linnaeus is another very de- structive species. Its length is somewhat more than the tenth of an inch, and its colour pale chesnut-brown, sometimes marked on the wing- covers by a pair of greyish bands: the antennae are rather long and slender^ the body remarkably convex, and the thorax, when magnified, appears * The reader will perceive that I have repeated the history of the Death-Watch from the description which I long ago published in the Naturalist's Miscellany. iPTiINl'5 /erruoineus jfftU2if . l££/. tfin^ Six. of 2'. pecti/mv/n/s /mitmiAed . tSo3 Oct"^ 1 l'iU>lishfii bv tr.Kearslev, flret Street /.i^ndorv. ffeaih.. j'c%tlfj. PTINUS. 37 to have a projecting point on each side. Its iarva resembles that of the preceding species, and is found in similar situations, Ptinus pectinicornis is readily distinguished by the remarkable appearance of the antenna?, the longer joints of which are so deeply pectinated as to have the aspect of feathered antennas. It is one of the smaller species, meiisuring in length about the eighth of an inch, and is of a slender habit, with a subcylindric body. It is often found in old wood, and among papers, books, &c. which it perforates and destroys. HISTER. HISTER. Generic Character. Antennae capitatae capitulo solidiusculo ; infimo arti- culo cornpresso, decur- vato. Caput intra corpus retrac- tile. Os forcipatum. Elytra corpore breviora. Tibue anticsB dentatae. Antennte headed by a some- what solid tip; lowest joint compressed and de- curved. Head retractile. Mouth for- cipated. Wifig-sheaths shorter than the body. Fore-legs toothed. X HE most common European species of this genus is the Hister unicolor of Linnasus. It is entirely of a glossy coal-black coloui', and of a slightly flattened shape; varying considerably in size, but usually measuring about the third of an inch in length, and is often seen in gardens, sandy fields, &c. Its larva seems to be unknown. Hister quadrimaciilatus. Lin. has much the ap- pearance of a small beetle; its shape is strongly convex, and its colour black, with two dull-red bars on each wing-shell; viz. one at the base, and the other, smaller, at the tip. It is found about dunghills, &c. lil.STEK. 10 * NiA-f/T iwin>/or H. U. m/i^ru/Ud ^, l/ZJ/f/T A'l/h iSos. Onr, London. /'„^/,.,h„1 hv o K^mwf^r. /■/,,( .trrM 21 Gvrinu.s- ita ^ f # tatcr. not. -Size. ruitator jn/j^ni/ied. Jlc4Uh. •Y3«^. lof' lit iruvqni tna^gi i/f/'d i8c,T.CcT^iZcnden.Pubh.,-}ud hi G Ktoj-shy.FUtr ./»v<-/ GYRINUS. GLIMMERCHAFFER. Generic Character. Aiitenna clavatce, rigidct", capite breviores. Oculi quatuor; duobus su- pra, duobus infra. Antemite clavated, stiff, shorter than tlie liead. Eyes (apparently) four ; two above, and two below. JL HE genus Gyriiius is furnished with extremely short, stiff antennas, appearing to consist of an undivided piece or joints but, if accurately in- spected by means of a magnifier, they will be found to be composed of very numerous close-set joints: the eyes are so placed as to appear double on each side the head; viz. one above and the other below the base of the antenna. The most remarkable European species is the Gyrinus natator, a small Insect, about a quarter of an inch in length, of an oval shape, w ith some- what sharpened extremities, and of a black or grey-black colour, with so lucid a surface as to shine like a piece of looking-glass in the full sun- "shine. It is an inhabitant of the waters, and is chiefly found in rivulets, being generally seen in great multitudes, and in very brisk motion. It is difficult to catch, diving with astonishing celerity when disturbed j the hinder legs being very broad. 40 GLIMMERCHAFFER. finely webbed with minute hairs, and most curi- ously formed for exercising the office of fms or oars. The larva is of a higlily singular aspect, having a very lengthened body, furnished, exclu- sive of six legs on the fore-parts, with a great many lateral appendages or processes down the body ; those towards the extremity considerably exceeding the rest. In its motions it is extremely agile, swimming in a kind of serpentine manner, and preying on the smaller and weaker water- insects, minute worms, &c. the head is armed with a pair of forceps, pierced on each side the tip with a small foramen, through which it sucks the juices of the animals on which it preys: the colour of this larva is a very pale or whitish brown, with a high degree of transparency, which renders it a highly curious object for the microscope : its length, when full-grown, is about three quarters of an inch. When the time of its changes arrives, it forms for itself a small oval cell or case on a leaf of sedge or other convenient water-plant, and after casting its skin, becomes a chrysalis: this change usually takes place in the month of August, and the complete insect emerges in that of September. When these animals are congregated together in great multitudes on the surface of the water, which frequently happens in hot weather, they have been observed to diffuse a strono- or disaoj'ree- able smell to a considerable distance. Like other water-beetles, they fly only by night. They de- posit their eggs, which are very small, white, and of a somewhat cylindric form, on the stems of GLIMMERCHAFFER. 41 water-plants: they hatch in the space of about eight days, and immediately begin to swim about with much briskness in quest of prey. Most of the exotic Gyrini have a strong general resemblance to this s])ecies, but differ in size and colour, thougli none hitherto discovered can be considered as large insects. PAUSUS. PAUSUS. Generic Character Jlnienn^ biarticulata^, clava maxima, imcinata, pedi- cellata, mobili. Caput porrectum. Elytra flexilia, deflexa, truncata. Anttmiie of two joints, the upper very large, inflated, moveable, and hooked. Head stretched forwards. Wing-sheaths flexile, de- flected, truncated. X HIS genus does not exist in the twelfth edition of the Systema Naturae, but made its first ap- pearance ir. a dissertation published at Upsai by Linnteus, ir, the year 1775. At that period only one species was known. In the year 1796, Dr. Adam Afze ius, then residing at the British settle- ment at Sierra Leona, discovered a second, and has described both with elaborate exactness in a paper on ths genus published in the fourth volume of the Traisactions of the Linnaean Society of London. To this paper nothing can be objected but its extreme prolixity. I shall therefore take the liberty of here reducing it within reasonable compass. The etymology of the name Dr. Afze- lius imagires to be from the Greek itautrig^ signify- ing a paus, cessation, or rest; for Linnseus, now old and infirm, and sinking under the weight of rAUSlTb' IQ J'. ,sp/i(rrrreros -^ F. nurfyurphn/n. h/'orf mngni/ifd ?i^/7/'/ mm/f?///^r/ T. . r. magni/ied T*. m. 7naqni/if// i/ff'^.^clSi Z rn/^frn ./"iiA/iJ-Aed hi- C.Kearj'leii.FUet Street PAUSUS. 43 age and labour, saw no probability of continuing any longer his career of glory. He might there- fore be supposed to say " h'lc rncta lahorinn," as it in reality proved, at least with regard to Insects; Pausus being the last he ever described. He named the Insect Pausus microceplialus . The head is unconmionly small ; the thorax l)roader than the head, and very uneven, the two parts being entirel}^ separated by a transverse furrow ; the foremost division is elevated into a sharp ridge resembling a collar, and the hindmost is depressed or cut out in the middle into a cavity, which is obtuse behind, dilated and deepened before, and encompassed on the sides with diverging and out- wardly declining lobes, being rounded at the top, and provided with shining hairs of a fulvous colour and bent inwards: the elytra are without dots, and rather longer than the abdomen: the under or real wings are sooty, and without the least glossiness: the abdomen has the terminal segment very retuse, and the margin of the next before it is visibly raised, the pivots of the antennie are black, very bright, and at first sight might be easily taken for eyes; the under joint is furnished with a wart on the inner margin of the top, covered with papillary or cartilaginous hairs: the upper joint or clava is dotted, much larger than the head, and of the shape of an oblong spheroid, being rounded in front and compressed, with the carina raised into a sharp edge, provided on the vertex with four tubercles set in a row and tipped with hairs, and elongated behind into an obtuse tube, 44 PAUSUS. laterally compressed, above depressed and under- neath having a knob, which, in moving, touches the bundle of hairs on the top of the under joint: the pedicle is long and crooked, its upper part being broader, compressed, and keeled in front : the in- terior palpi are of a lanceolate-oblong shape, and furnished with very minute hinges: the mandibles have small hinges, and the inferior sheath is much larger than the superior: the hind-legs are a little shorter than the others: the joints of the tarsi are diflicultly distinguished. This rare insect is a native of Banana island, and Sierra Leona in Africa. Its colour is a blackish brown. It is represented on the annexed plate both in its natural size, and considerably magnified. The second species, or Paiisus sphceroceruSj is thus described by Dr. Afzelius. " I had been in Africa almost three years before I happened to meet with this remarkable little insect; and then it was quite accidentally. There was a house building for the Governor, on an eminence called Thornton Hill at the South end of Free-Town in Sierra Leona; and in the begin- ning of the year 1795, several apartments having been got ready, so as to be habitable, one of them was allotted to me, and I removed into it in the end of the month of January. I had not resided there many days, when one evening, having just lighted my candle and begun to write, I observed something dropping down from the ceiling before me upon the table; which, from its singular ap- pearance, attracted my particular attention. It PAUSUS. 45 remained for a little while quite immoveable, ns if stunned or frightened, but began soon to crawl very slowly and steadily. I then caught it, and, from the remembrance I had of the Linntean species, I directly took it for a non-descript of this genus. Some few days after, coming into my room from supper, with a light in my hand, and having })ut it upon the table, there instantly fell another down from the ceiling. The third I was favoured with by the then Governor, Mr. Dawes, who informed me that it had dropped down before him on the table, just when he had entered his room, and was going to write. The other three, which I afterwards collected, were also got upon similar occasions, and from thence I thought I had some reason to conclude that it is a nocturnal animal, that it becomes benumbed by candle- light, that it lives in wood, and prefers new-built houses, &c. After the end of February I never saw any more. The last which I caught I put into a box, and left confined there for a day or two. One evening, going to look at it, and happening to stand between the light and the box, so that my shadow fell upon the insect, I observed to my great astonishment, the globes of the antennas, like two lanthorns, spreading a dim phosphoric light. This singular phenomenon raised my curiosity, and, after having examined it several times that night, I resolved to repeat my researches the following day. But the animal, being exhausted, died before the morning, and the light disappeared. And afterwards, not being 46 I'AUSUS. able to find any more specimens, I was prevented from ascertaining the fact by reiterated experi- ments at diffei-ent times; which I therefore must recommend to other naturalists who may have an opportunity of visiting Sierra Leona, requesting that they would particularly inquire into this curious circumstance. I shall now only add some few remarks, shewing in what manner this new species differs from the old one. Not being quite so broad, it looks as if it were longer, and more cylindrical : it is also of a lighter or chesnut colour, and all over very glossy. The head is larger, but its annular l>ase part smaller, and contracted: it is furnished with a little horn in the middle, be- tween the eyes, which is strait, conic, and tipped with a tuft of cartilaginous hairs: the clypeus is only depressed, and the jugular t.iangle wader: the eyes are large, and very evident, those of the male black, though in a certain light appearing greenish; but those of the female are like pearls, or as if they were covered w ith a crystalline mem- brane: the angles of the brim of the socket are small and rounded at the top, and the hinder one lower than the eye. Tlie pivots of the antennas are not so discernible as in the former species, being like the surrounding parts in colour: the under joint is without any hairy papilla or wart: the upper joint or clava is of the size of the head, quite globular, and resembles an inflated bladder, being almost pellucid, and of a light flesh-colour: the keel is nothing more than a raised line, finish- ing on the vertex in only one chesnut-brown PAUSUS. 47 tubercle covered with cartilaginous hairs: behind there is a little conical shining hook, of the same colour and with the same sort of hairs bending outwardly, being of equal length with the horn on the head, but narrower : the pedicle is short, strait, and cylindrical. The interior palpi, furnished with very visible hinges, are a little thicker to- wards the top, but look in some directions as if they were filiform : the mandibles have large hinges, and the superior sheath almost as long as the inferior one, and nearly cylindrical. The thorax is of the same breadth with the head, and not very uneven, the two parts being separated by a furrow only on the sides and underneath, the foremost above and on the sides resembling an annular segment, and the hinder one impressed in the middle with a mark somewhat like two small diverging wings of a blackish silvery colour. The elytra are shorter than the abdomen, and minutely punctated: the under wings are of a shining and changeable violaceous colour, and not very dark: the abdomen has the terminal segment a little convex, and in the female more so than in the male: underneath, the third and last segments are darker than the others, the legs are all of equal length ; the tarsi longer than those of the Pausus microccphalus, and have both the joints and the claws much more distinct." BYRRMUS. BYRRHUS. Generic Character. Antenna clavatse, subsolidae, Antenna clavated, subsolid. subcompressa?. \ subcornpressed. J. HE Insects belonging to this genus have an ovate body, convex or subglobular in some species, with the wing-shells covered by a short pile, and the head is retracted under the thorax. The Byrrhics Scrophularicc is a small insect, of the size of one of the smallest kind of CoccinellaB or Lady-Birds ; its colour is a dark brown, clouded with broken or irregular white bands, and the edges constituting the line of division between the wing-sheaths is red. This little insect is observed to be more frequently found on the plant called Scrophularia aquatica than elsewhere. Byrj^hus P'llula is a larger species, equalling, or rather exceeding the size of the common Lady- Bird or Coccinella septem-punctata. Its colour is a dull brown, with a few obscure blackish lines down the wing-shells : it is of an extremely convex shape, and, when disturbed, contracts its limbs, and lies in an inert state, resembling the appear- ance of a seed or pill. It is found on various plants, and about garden-ground, &c. the antennas 3?Y]R.:S-'H1''S m ^iluUv J[/j4S6Coru/ny Scropfudiuia S3 -ido-i,Octiz.Zoruii?ii.J'iJjU/hcu\rlc^- , Fic/^ Street BYRRHUS. 49 in this species are longer than in others, and rather perfoliated than merely knobbed. Byrrluis JMmeorum resembles Byrrhus Scro- phularias, but wants the red suture of the wing- shells: it is often seen in houses, and commits depredations in animal and vegetable collections, in the same manner as the insects of the genus Ptinus and Dermestes. V. VI. P, I. SILPHA. SILPHA. Generic Character. Antennte extrorsum crassi- ores. Elytra marginata. Caput prominens. Thorax planiusculus, mar- ginatus. Antemi/e thickening towards the tip. Wing-sheaths margined. Head prominent. Thorax flattish, margined. X HE insects of the genus Silpha are generally found among decaying animal or vegetable sub- stances, frequenting dung-hills, carrion, &c. and deposit their eggs chiefly in the latter. The Larvae are of a lengthened shape, and of an un- pleasant appearance, being generally roughened with minute spines and protuberances. The most remarkable of the European species, and which is by no means uncommon in our own country, is the Silpha Vespillo, distinguished by having the wing-sheaths considerably shorter than the abdo- men, or as if cut off at the tips : they are also each marked by two waved, orange-coloured, trans- verse bars, the rest of the insect being black : the general length of the animal is about three quarters of an inch. This insect seeks out some decaying animal substance in which it may deposit H S'lLHHA. « ruooo'ti c7ermaiuca i thoractav X ^^ V J^ ^^ Ohry.s-offitda .. VcspUlo i atrata^ 4 fTwrii/atw iSc^.Ocf.i f.cruicn./'ut'lui-/uJhv 4^.K€ar.i-if,F/<'et.Citx„r. SILPHA. Si its eggs, and in order to their greater security, contrives to bury it under ground. Three or four insects, working in concert, have been known to drag under the surface the body of so large an animal as a Mole in the space of an hour, so that no trace of it has appeared above ground. The eggs deposited by the parent insects are white, and of an oval or rather subcylindric shape: from these are hatched the Larvae, which, when full- grown, are more than an inch in length, and of a yellowish-white colour, with a scaly orange- coloured shield or bar across the middle of each division of the body. Each of these larvae forms for itself an oval cell in the ground, in which it changes to a yellowish chrysalis, resembling that of a beetle; out of which, in the space of about eighteen days, proceeds the perfect insect. This species possesses a considerable degree of ele- gance, but generally diffuses a very strong and unpleasant smell : it flies with considerable strength and rapidity, and is generally seen on the wing during the hottest part of the day. In many parts of North America is found a variety, differing merely in size, being far larger than the European kind, and measuring an inch and half in length. The Silpha Gcr?nanica of Linnaeus so much re- sembles the S. Vespillo that it seems scarcely to differ except in colour, being entirely coal-black. It is found in similar situations with the preceding- species. Several of the Silphae are of an entirely oval 52 SILPHA. outline : of this kind is the aS*. thoracica, which is easily distinguishable by its red thorax, every other part of the animal being coal-black j it is about half an inch in length. Silpha atrata is of similar size, but totally black, and has the wing-sheaths marked by three rising lines: its larva, which may be found in gardens, is of a lengthened shape and of a black colour. The genus Silpha may be considered as a numer- ous one, but few of the species are of any great beauty, and many are of very small size. CAS SIB A: ^^*£c nehrdo^a Lzt^raiis jjuirof/iahv arossa jSo^.OccTj.Lt^niicruPuh/i.s-AfJ bi' G-Jua/vlfv-FlaffSt/viC CASSIDA. CASSIDA. Generic Character. Antennae moniliform, thick- ening tOAvards the tip. JT^flt/ concealed beneath the shield of the thorax. Thorax and Wing-Sheaths dilated and margined. Body oval, convex, flat beneath. Antennae moniliformes, ex- trorsum crassiores. Caput sub thoracis clypeo piano reconditum. Thorax et Elytra dilatato- marginata. Corpus ovale, convexum, subtus planum. JL HIS genus is readily distinguished by the singular manner in which the thorax and wing- sheaths cover the head and body, which, when the insect is laid on its back, appears somewhat like a tortoise in miniature. The genus is numer- ous, and among the exotic species are several of great beauty. Some of the European species are also of an elegant aspect, as the common green Cassida, or Cassida viridis of Linnaeus, which is often seen during the summer months in gardens, &c. especially on mint and other verticillate plants. Its length is nearly a quarter of an inch ; its shape oval, and its colour bright green above, the body or under part being coal-black. The larva, which is of a highly singular appearance, is oval, of a yellowish brown colour, and has the body edged 54 CASSIDA. with a row or fringe of projecting fibres, the two terminal ones being much longer than the rest, and generally carried in an upright position while the animal is in motion. When ready for its change, it fastens itself to a leaf, and casting its skin, commences chrysalis, which is also of a very unusual shape, and is remarkable for the breadth or dilatation of the fore-part. From the chrysalis, in the space of three weeks, proceeds the insect in its complete state. Cassida marginata is more than double the size of the preceding, and is of a yellowish brown colour, with blue-green thorax. It is a native of India. Cassida lateralis is still larger, and brown with a brassy or metallic lustre, and has a large oval yellow spot on the middle of each wing-shell. It is a native of South- America. Cassida grossa is of a still superior size, being, perhaps, the largest of the genus, and is of a bright red colour, with the wing-shells thickly marked by small black spots on the middle part, and by strong, ramified, transverse black streaks on each side. It is a native of South- America. lO rocri^-^F.iLLA. head &c.?nacfnaLed ^ — J/? piuirtala n^jri/ia pun cLzAs^cirtui hifunctata i6 punctata vioffnuied 1 -'f*]%*\ u punctatii 1 r iinctata .V A-Mi/u s--ulf j.So^.Ocdj.ZoiiJvn.J'uMWiri/ f>f OJlears/eiJ'/fet Sf/Tt-r. COCCINELLA. COCCINELLA. Generic Character. AntentKe subclavatse, trun- catae. Palpi clava semicordata. Corpus hemisphsericum, ab- domine subtus piano. Antennce subclavated and truncated. Feelers with semi-cordated tip. Body hemispheric, with the abdomen flat beneath. JL HE beautiful genus Coccinella Succeeds to that of Cassida, and is easily distinguished by its hemi- spheric form, having the upper parts convex, and the lower flat. The insects of this genus are known by the popular name of Lady-Birds, and one species in particular is endeared to every one's recollection by irresistibly recalling the ideas of the playful amusements of infancy: this is the common or seven-spotted Lady-Bird, Coccinella septempunctata of Linnteus, which, in the advanced state of spring, and the middle of summer, makes its appearance in every field and garden. It pro- ceeds from a larva of a rather disagreeable appear- ance, of a lengthened oval shape, with a sharpened tail, of a black colour, varied with red and white specks, and of a rough surface: it resides on vari- ous plants, and changes to a short, blackish, oval chrysalis spotted with red, and which gives birth 56 COCCINELLA. to its beautiful inmate in the months of May and June. The Coccinellae are \ery numerous, and some kinds are known to intermix occasionally; thus causing a considerable difficulty in determining the real distinction of the species. They are gene- rally divided according to the ground-colour of the wing-sheaths, which are either red with black, yellow with black, black with red, or yellow with white spots. One of the most beautiful of the English species is the Coccinella octodecim-punctata of Linnceus, or the eighteen-spotted Lady-Bird, which is little more than half the size of the com- mon red kind, and is of a bright yellow colour, with numerous black specks, generally eighteen in number. The Coccinellas, both in their larva and com- plete state, feed chiefly on the small insects called Aphides. 7 CMJ-iYSOyiKLA C. Topuli m. Small British/ Chrysomelcxi Sffia// /j/'i/ish Cliri'sojfij;l£t ^rMiiinis 2Se>$,Cc«{il,cruicn/,l'uilts/iail>S &.Ke€0\fiev,Flcet. Sovrt. CHRYSOMELA. CHRYSOMELA. Generic Charade?^ Antenna moniliformes ex- trorsum crassiores. Thorax marginatus. Corpus ovatum vel ob- longum, convexum. Antennte moniliform, thick- ening towards the tip. Thorax margined. Body ovate or oblong, convex. A HE genus Chrysomela is extremely extensive, and some modern entomologists have subdivided it into several others. Many of the Chrysomelae are very nearly allied in point of habit or general appearance to the CoccinellaB, and have accordingly by difterent authors been arranged in either genus. Of this kind is the beautiful insect called Chrysomela Populi or the Poplar Chrysomela: it is about twice the size of the common or seven-spotted Coccinella, and is of a bright red colour, with the tips of the M'ing-shells black, and the thorax of a greenish or blueish black. It is found on the black and white poplars, willows, &c. and proceeds from a larva of nearly similar appearance to those of the genus Coccinella : it is of a pale yellowish green colour speckled with black, and edged with rows of small tubercles, those on the sides projecting in such a manner as to represent so many conical papillae. 58 CHRYSOMELA, Linnasus observes that this larva diffuses, on hand- ling, a highly fetid, and even insupportable smell. In gener?', on touching the larva, a small drop of white fluid instantly appears from a pore on the tip of each of the lateral tubercles, and after some time, again disappears. It is this white fluid which diffuses the odour above-mentioned, and which is of so penetrating a nature, that on hand- ling the animal, the smell will often remain on the fingers throughout the whole day. Even when recently hatched these larvas possess the power of discharging the fetid fluid. In the month of June the larva changes to a short brown chrysalis, so fastened as to hang by its extremity from the foot- stalk of a leaf or twig; and from this, in the space of a fortnight or less proceeds the complete Chrysomela. Chrijsomela Asparagi is an insect of peculiar beauty: it is often seen feeding on the Asparagus, and is of an oblong or subcylindric shape, with red thorax, and yellow wing-shells marked by blackish-blue bands, Chrysomela Graminis is a common, but highly elegant insect, measuring about the fifth of an inch in length, and being of a most vivid but deep golden-green colour : the male, which is some- what smaller, is often tinged with copper-colour : this species is of an extremely convex shape. Chrysomela Betulce is one of the richest of the genus, being entirely of the most brilliant and beautiful grass-green: it is found on Birch-trees. Chrysomela merdigera is of an oblong form, and jS Cl-IRirS OMBXi^'^l Boleti Gig as Tn^iijiLT marffiMata/ m^rdiMe/ra/ SvirinarnM^n^riif (fi^antew Indi/xi r/i7^/>n.ca iSfi^, OctfiiZondtyn.Tuilijhed by &.Kcarj'Uv,FUe^ Str&ec. CHRYSOMELA, 5g of a red colour, with a somewhat cyhndric thorax. It is a native of our own Island, and measures about a third of an inch in length. Chrysomda Boleti is a middle-sized species of a black colour, with three waved yellow bands across the wing-sheaths. It is an English insect, and is chiefly found on Boleti and other Fungi, Chrysomela Indica greatly resembles the former, but is of larger size, and is brown with two waved yellow bands across the wing-sheaths. It is found in India. Chrysomela Sur'marnensis is one of the larger insects of the genus, is of a deep blue colour, and of a smooth surface, with the antennae and feet brown. It is found in Surinam, and sometimes varies into copper-colour. Chrysomela Gigas (Fuessli Arch.) is a large species entirely of a fine blue colour. It is said to be a native of Surinam, and in point of habit or general appearance makes a near approach to a species of Tenel^rio not uncommon in our own Island. Chrysomela gibbosa is a large species, of a pale orange-colour with numerous, small black spots, and a transverse band across the middle and tips of the wing-sheaths, which rise up into an almost conical convexity in the middle: the thorax is black. It is a native of South- America. Chrysomela gigantea, the largest of the genus, is black, with the wing-shells marked by very nu- merous orange-coloured spots, and is a native of India. HISPA. HISPA. Generic Character. Antenna fasiformes, basi approximatse, inter ocu- los sitae. Thorax elytraque saepius aculeata. Antenna spindle - shaped, approximated at the base, situated between the eyes. Thorax and wing-shells ge- nerally aculeated. A HE principal British species of this genus is a rather small insect, sometimes found near the roots of grasses: it is totally black; and has the wing-shells beset with six rows of spines, and the thorax with a iew distant ones. It is considered as a rare insect, and its larva is unknown. w HlSF^ S. atra nat. size WBJjVlA'Vf> JS. P/Si ip//r7rt^t//s 7 ^ S. Bfir/ns iS.'.'iO.-fJ-f'I.ouJ.'ii fuhlixlifj In h.K:ir.ehvJ-'/ff/Str<-<-t. BRUCHUS. BRUCHUS. Generic Character. AjUenna filiformes, sensim crassiores. Caput rctracto-inflexum. Thorax autice attenuatus. Elytra truncata, abdomine breviora. Antennae filiform, gradually thickening. Head retracted and inflected. Thorax attenuated in front. Wing-Shells truncated, shorter than the abdomen. JL HE genus Bruchiis consists, in general, of small insects. The Bruchus granarius is found among beans, vetches, and other seeds, the lobes of which it devours. It is scarcely two lines in length, and is black, with the wing-shells freckled by white specks: the two fore-legs are reddish, and the an- tennae of similar colour at the base: the thighs of the hind-legs are armed w'\t\\ a tooth or process. The Bruchus seminarius is a rather smaller than the preceding species, which it considerably re- sembles, but has tlie hinder thighs plain, or with- out the denticle. The larvae of these species seem to have been not yet observed. The exotic species are chiefly natives of Ame- rica. Among these the Bruchus Bactt^is is one of the most remarkable, and is found in the nuts of the Palm of that name : it is of a grey colour, with the thighs of the hind-legs ovate. CURCULIO. WEEVIL. Generic Character. Antennee subclavatge, rostro insidentes. Rostrum corneum, promi- nens. Antennae subclavated, situ- ated on the snout. Snout horny, prominent. X HIS genus is extremely extensive. Among the largest of the exotic species may be numbered the Curculio Palmariim or Palm Weevil, which is entirely of a black colour, and measures more than two inches in length from the tip of the snout to the end of the body. Its larva, which is very large, white, and of an oval shape, resides in the tender- est part of the smaller palm-trees, and is con- sidered, when properly fried or broiled, as one of the greatest dainties in the West Indies. " The tree," says Madam Merian, " grows to the height of a man, and is cut off where it begins to be tender, is cooked like cauliflower, and tastes better than an artichoke. In the middle of these trees live innumerable quantities of worms, which, at first, are as small as a maggot in a nut, but after- wards grow to a very large size, and feed on the marrow of the tree. These worms are laid on the coals to roast, and are considered as a highly agreeable food," ?o Criinr^Hi. (Wnlniarum 1/irva . ,.(\,':, /..u.h^n. fWi.^M h' '•' ^'•'"^*'' ^''" •'■"■'•" Ct-r CI^IiIO 27 C. ?iTirum iSofi-Oct^i LcnJ,',, .PuhUfhe.i hv (T.ErursUyFUet So-tiL. WEEVIL. 63 Tlie Ciirculio nucum or Nut Weevil is well de- serving of attention, and is the insect produced by the magjtrot residing in the hazel nut. Though every one is well acquainted with the maggot in the nut, yet the various changes through which it passes, the mode of its introduction into the nut, and its appearance in its complete or perfect state are what iiiw that are not conversant in the history of insects have the least knowledge of. Tiie in- sect makes its appearance early in the month of August, and may then be found creeping about hazel trees. The female insect, when ready to deposit her eggs, singles out a nut, which she pierces with her proboscis, and then, turning round, deposits an eg§ in the cavity. She then passes on, and singles out another nut, which she pierces in the same manner, placing an egg in it, and thus proceeds till she has deposited in different nuts her w^hole stock. The nut, not apparently injured by this slight perforation, continues to grow^, and gradually ripens its kernel. When the iigg is hatched, the young larva or maggot, find- ing its food ready prepared, begins to feast on the kernel. By the^me that it has arrived at its full growth, and has nearly consumed the whole of the kernel, the natural foil of the nut takes place: the inclosed larva, not in the least injured by the fall, continues in the nut some time longer, and then creeps out at the hole in the side, which it has previously made, by gnawing in a circular direc- tion, and immediately begins to burrow or creep under the surface of the ground, till, having at- (J4 WEEVIL. tained the depth sufficient for its convenient re- sidence during the long period of its winter con- cealment, it lies dormant for eight months, and then, casting its skin, commences a chrysalis, of the same general shape and appearance with the rest of the beetle tribe; and it is not till the be- ginning of xAiUgust that it arrives at its complete or ultimate form, at which period it casts off the skin of the chrysalis, creeps to the surface, and commences an inhabitant of the upper world. During this state it breeds, and, like the major part of the insect race, enjoys, for a short time, the pleasures of a more enlarged existence. As a species it is distinguished by its brown colour, and the great length and slenderness of its curved snout: it measures nearly half an inch in length from the tip of the snout to that of the body. Dr. Darwin, in his elegant poem The Botanic Garden, thus beautifully expresses the egress of this insect from the cavity of the nut. " So sleeps in silence the Curculio, shut In the dark chambers of the cavern'd nut. Erodes with ivory beak the vaulted shell And quits on filmy wings it narrow cell." To this genus belongs the destructive insect peculiarly called the Weevil, which is the Cinxulio granarius of Linnaeus: its colour is an uniform dull chesnut or reddish brown, and its length scarcely two lines : the female insect perforates a grain of wheat, and in it deposits an e^g, or two at most, (a grain of wheat being incapable of WEEVIL. 65 nourishing more than two of the young brood when hutched,) and this she does to five or six grains every day, for several days together: these eggs, not above the size of a grain of sand, nn about seven days, produce a small white maggot or larva, which devours the substance of the grain in which it is lodged, and then changes into a chrysalis, from which, in about fourteen days, proceeds the complete insect. This is, perhaps, the insect mentioned by Virgil, among the animals injurious to corn. " populatque ingcatem funis acervwn Cwrculio" Another species, which also makes its unwelcome appearance among corn, is the Curcidio Jrumen- tar'ms. Its size is that of the grattarius or IFeevily and its colour a bright red : it is an insect of great beauty, and is frequently seen during the autumnal season creeping about sunny walls, &c. Many of the exotic species are of very con- siderable size and possessed of great beauty of colour; but of all the insects of the genus Curculio, and even (in the opinion of some entomologists), of all known insects, the most brilliant and beautiful is the Curculio imperialis or Imperial Curculio, commonly known by the name of the Diamond Beetle. It is a native of Brasil, and usually mea- sures about an inch in length: the ground-colour of the wing-sheaths is coal-black, but along each are distributed numerous parallel rows of sparkling concavities, of a round shape, and of a gold-green V. VI. p. I. 5 66 WEEVIL. colour; but which, when properly magnified, ex- hibit the varying lustre of the most brilliant gems : this appearance is owing to innumerable minute scales, analogous to those on the wings of butterflies, and which, by their polished surface and different juxtaposition, produce the admired effect just men- tioned: they are of an oblong-oval shape, alike at both ends, and not dilated and notched at the tips as in the butterfly tribe. Every other part of the insect is also decorated with similar scales, but not in the form of spots ; and along the thorax they are disposed into parallel, broad, longitudinal bands. This species has been faithfully figured in the works of Drury, Olivier, &c. but it is utterly impossible for any figure of the natural size to convey any idea of more than the general appearance of the animal. The engraving annexed to the present description exhibits a magnified view of the insect, accompanied by one of the natural size, as well as by several of the shining scales, very highly magnified, in order to shew their particular shape. Another species, not greatly inferior in beauty to the former, is the CiircuUo r^egalis, a native of New Holland, and which in its general shape and ground-colour, bears a near resemblance to the preceding, but is decorated with large, brilliant, gold-coloured patches, dispersed over the wing- shells, and which also owe their brilliancy to in- numerable golden scales, as in the C. imperialis. Nor is our own country destitute of a species of almost equal elegance, though far inferior in size; Ci^KrxTLiOc ii'uL;n , l'uJ)fi.i-/u'J b) fi ITejin'-Zry . Fleet Sfi-ej-f. MfHx/h'dur .P,--ufyi. WEEVIL. 67 since the CurcuUo argentatus, a small insect of about a quarter of an inch in length, and of the most beautiful gold or silver-green colour, ex- hibits, when viewed with a microscope, a splendor of a similar nature, and produced by a covering of similar scales, shining with a metallic lustre. It is frequently seen during the summer months in fields and gardens. So very extensive is the genus Curculio, that !Mr. Marsham, in his Entomologia Britannica, enu- merates no fewer than 234 British species. ATTELABUS. ATTELABUS. Generic Character. Caput postice attenuatum. Antennts apicem versus ci-assiores. Head attenuated behind. Antenna thickening to- wards the tip. o F the genus Attelabus one of the principal species is the Attelabus Coryli of Linnaeus, which is a smallish insect, found chiefly on hazel trees, and is black, with red wing-sheaths; and a variety sometimes occurs in which the thorax is red also: it usually measures about a quarter of an inch in length. A much smaller species is the Attelabus Betulcey which is found on the Birch: it is entirely of a black colour, and is remarkable for gnawing the leaves of that tree, during the early part of spring, in such a manner that they appear notched on the edges. The thighs of the hind-legs in this insect are of a remarkably thickened form. The larvae of the Attelabi do not seem to have been distinctly described, but they probably bear a resemblance to those of the genus Curculio. Linnaeus refers to the genus Attelabus some insects which by later entomologists have been otherwise arranged: among these is the elegant species called Attelabus apiarius, so named from the mischief which its z:^ J.\TTmjAliT^. * "•irms;"- ./// //'/■('//' A'- //'.' inaif/ii/'ird j^' ^^^ .III tl/>l/l/lt/S h-f,',ii.-r, "Ln,j,.„ /■„/,/, ,/,^,/ /„ /:/,).,„.,,/^, J/ ATTELABUS. 6g larva occasionally commits among bee-hives, de- stroying the young of those insects. It is about three quarters of an inch in length, and of a beauti- ful violet-black, with red wing-shells, marked by three black transverse bands. Tlie whole insect is also covered with fine short black hair. It is com- mon in some parts of France, Germany, &c. Its larva above-mentioned is of a bright red colour. CERAMBYX. CERAMBYX. Generic Character, Antennts attenuatae. Thorax spinosus aut gibbus. Elytra sublinearia. Corpus oblongum. Antennce slender and gra- dually attenuated. • Thorax either spiny or bulging. Wing-Sheaths sublinear. Body oblong. X HE genus Cerambyxis of vast extent, compre- hending many insects of the most extraordinary- appearance, and. of a size superior to any in the order Coleoptera except those of the genus Scara- baeus. Their larvae are chiefly found in decayed trees, and resemble those of the Beetle, but are of a more lengthened form. Among the most singular species may be num- bered the Ceramhyx longimanus or long-limbed Cerambyx, measuring about three inches in length from head to tail ; the wing-sheaths are beset with a very fine down, and are most elegantly varied with red, black, and yellow, in the form of stripes, disposed in various directions: the fore-legs are of excessive length, very strong, and of a black colour, with broad red bars: the antennse are long and black. This species is elegantly figured by V C]EB,jO>I]BTX. C. damuojmis. jSc.^.^rfi LcruicjiJ'uhli^htJlhy G KearjUv.Fhtt Strut CERAMBYX. 7 1 Madam Merian ili her celebrated work on the Insects of Surinam. The Cerambifx G'lgas is a species which seems to have been first described in tiie work of Mr. Drury on exotic insects: it is, perhaps, the most gigantic of the whole genus, measuring between six and seven inches in length: the wing-shells are of a dark brown colour, and eyery other part of the insect black. The Ceramhyx damkornis is one of the larger species, though very considerably inferior to the two preceding : it is of a dark chesnut-colour, with very long, curved jaws, spined or serrated on the inner side, as in those of the Stag-Beetle or Lucanus Cervus, to which this insect bears a considerable general resemblance. It is a native of many parts of America and the West-Indian islands, where its larva, like that of the Palm Cur- culio, is in great request as an article of food, being considered by the transatlantic epicures as one of the greatest delicacies in the Western World. We are informed by authors of the high- est respectability, that some people of fortune in the West-Indies keep Negroes for the sole pur- pose of going into the woods in quest of these admired larvae, and scooping them out of the trees in which they reside. Their general length is about three inches and a half, and their thickness that of the little finger. Dr. Browne, in his History of Jamaica, informs us that they ar$ chiefly found in the Plumb and Silk-Cotton-Trees. They are commonly called by the name of Ma- 72 CERAMBYX. caccos, or Macokkos. The mode of dressing them is first to open and wash them, and then carefully broil them over a charcoal fire. Ceramhyx cinnamomeus is a somewhat smaller species, and is entirely of a pale ferruginous brown colour: the thorax is marked on each side by two spines, and the wing-shells are each tipped by a very small projecting point. It is a native of South-America. Among the European species of this very ex- tensive genus none are more remarkable than the Ceramhyx moschatus, commonly called the musk goatchaffer, so named from its powerful scent, which however is far more agreeable than that of the substance from which it takes its name, resembling rather the combined scent of roses, musk, and ambergris. So diffusive is this agree- able odour, that, whenever the insect makes its appearance, which is commonly in the hottest part of July, it may be smelt to a considerable di- stance, and if taken and rolled up for some minutes in a handkerchief, will perfume it for the whole day. This insect, which is not very uncommon in many parts of our own country, measures about an inch and quarter in length, from the head to the end of the body: its colour is a fine dark green, with a slight gilded tinge on the upper parts, and sometimes it varies in having a strong cast of blue or purple: the antenna are rather shorter than the body. It is chiefly found on willows and poplars, in the decayed wood of which its larva resides. It has been found that the 2K r>;i^.,\:>'i:i3TX, hirva pupa f .cc/'iaruuf iSc ^.Cet^L Lcndi-n .PublLflu^i by C-./ie,irsU-y.Fle<-t Street. CERAMBYX. 73 Cerambyx moschatus, when dried and reduced to powder, and made use of as a vesicatory, in the manner of the officinal Cantharides, produces a similar effect, and in as short a space of time *. Cerambyx coriarius of Linnaeus is also one of the larger European species, measuring near an inch and half in length, and is of a broadish shape, with thick, serrated antennae of moderate length: the thorax is armed on each side with three sharp spines or denticulations, and the whole insect is of a deep brown colour. It proceeds from a large yellowish Miiite larva, with a chesnut-coloured head, which resides in the hollows of decayed trees, and changes into a chrysalis of similar colour. Cerambyx cedilis is one of the smaller or middle- sized species. It is a native of many parts of Europe, and is found in our own country, though not a very common insect. It is of a grey colour, with two or three obscure transverse brown bands, and the thorax is marked by four yellow spots : it is remarkable for the excessive length of its an- tennae, which, in the male especially, are five or six times that of the body. It is found in old de- cayed timber, and in the trunks of trees. * Drur. ins. 1. pref. p. ix. LEPTURA. LEPTURA. Generic Character Antenna setaceous. Elytra apicem versus at- tenuata. Thorax teretiusculus. Antenna; setaceous. Wing-Sheaths attenuated towards the tip. Thorax subcylindric. JL HE genus Leptura, greatly allied to that of Cerambyx, contains several species of considerable beauty, among which may be reckoned the Lep- tura arcuata, of a black colour, with the wing- sheaths marked by transverse, yellow, lunated bands pointing backwards: it is found in woods during the summer months, and generally mea- sures about three quarters of an inch in length. Leptura arietis is of nearly similar appearance, but the second band of the wing-sheaths is di- rected forwards: both the above insects are by some referred to the genus Cerambyx. Leptura aquatica is so named from its being particularly found in the neighbourhood of waters, frequenting the plants which grow near the water's edge. It is about half an inch in length, and of a golden green colour, sometimes varying into cop- per-colour, purple, or blue, and is distinguished by having a tooth or process on the thighs of the hind-legs. Xeptura. :v; eufuadca mcnJianay eloitotitd tiui'doZa armuia^ anetis ^ liasULta, rcrbao'Ch .U.Oril'Atli^ »-. iSoj Occ^if LcridcnJ'uilurhal by O. Ee^irolev fUe/ Strau ■ LEPTURA. 75 Leptura meridiana is one of the larger European species, often measuring an inch in length, and is a very common insect during the decline of sum- mer in fields and woods, generally appearing in the hottest part of the day. It is of a dull brown colour above, sometimes j^ellowish-chesnut, and beneath is of a brilliant taAvny yellow, shining with the lustre of satin. It has very much the general appearance of a Cerambyx, and might perhaps with equal propriet};' be referred to either genus. The larvae of the Lepturae in general are probably allied to those of the Cerambyces, but they are at present very little known. NECYDALIS. NECYDALIS. Generic Character. Antenna setaceae. Elytra alls minora, breviora, seu angustiora. Cauda simplex. Antenna setaceous. Wing - Sheaths smaller, shorter, or narrower than the wings. Tail simple. JLN this genus the thorax is narrow and rounded, the body of a lengthened shape, and the wing- shells generally smaller than the wings. One of the most common species is the Necydalis minora an insect seen in fields and about hedges in the summer months, and which has somewhat of the habit of a small Cerambyx, but the wing-sheaths are but half the length of the body, and are grey- brown, each marked at the tip with a linear white spot, the rest of the insect being black. Its length is rather more than a quarter of an inch. Necydalis ccerulea is a beautiful species. It is about half an inch in length, and entirely of a bright blue colour, sometimes greenish blue: the wing-shells are of the length of the body, but narrow, so as not to cover the sides of the wings j and the hind-thighs are very thick. It is found in woods during the summer months. * / ^r.CYlJ>At,l^ miihi/l^ii'H'iiiii rccridea (i/>' mdur iS.,;X'.-triZcjul>v.^- ^S pup/x u/?'va ; /em^ fern ^7iLl>eUicoTis "A. ^^•jjjtii i / plunwo-a ^Iauritanic,/'/,shf^/ hr G Ariinlfv. FUfi Sn-fft CICINDELA. 87 blackish purple colour, with the wing-sheaths each marked by an undulated whitish band and three white spots: it frequents woods and is far less common than the former. The larvae of the Cicindelse are of a lengthened shape, somewhat like those of the smaller Ceram- byces, and are furnished with strong, curved jaws : they inhabit tubular hollows, which they form near the surface of the ground, and prey on the smaller insects. BUPRESTIS. BUPRESTIS. Generic Character. Antenna setacese, longi- tudine thoracis. Caput dimidium intra tlio- raceni retractum. Antenna setaceous, of the length of the thorax. Head half withdrawn be-- neath the thorax. JL HE splendid genus Buprestis stands conspi- cuous among the coleopterous insects, on account of the superior brilliancy of its colours, which, in many of the larger exotic species in particular, shine with a metallic lustre. It is a very numer- ous genus, but by far the major part of the species are exotic. Among these the Buprestis gigaittea is the largest hitherto discovered, measuring two inches and a half in length: the thorax is smooth, resembling the colour of polished bell-metal, and the wing-sheaths are of a gilded copper-colour, with a cast of blue- green, and are wrinkled in a longitudinal direction with slight, prominent ra- mifications. It is a native of India, China, and many other parts of Asia, and is also found in South-America. Tlie large size, metallic colours, and wrinkled surface of the wing-shells in this insect, have induced the Chinese to attempt imi^ tations of it in bronze, in which they succeed o -mara/nfa tfnebrionis gi^fontgiL 3'^ fi/r7no7Tho idal/.s' 7cl/T(l i^c^.CexCiZcndort.2'u/?lt^-htd bv CEeaj'.i-lfv .FljueStre^c BUPRESTIS. 89 SO well that the copy may be sometimes mistaken for the reality. This fine insect proceeds from a large white larva, much resembling that of the Lucanus Cervus or Great Stag-Chaffer, and which feeds, according to Madam Merian, who has figured it in her celebrated work on the Insects of Surinam, on the roots of plants of the Convolvulus tribe. The Buprestls sternicornis is considerably smaller than the former species, and of a thicker shape: it is of the most brilliant golden-green colour, marked with numerous impressed points, which are sometimes whitish: the thorax is still brighter, marked above by numerous impressed points, and stretched out beneath into a conical process. It is a native of India. The Buprestis Chrysis of Fabricius is so much allied to the sternicornis in shape and size, that it has by some been considered rather as a variety than truly distinct: it differs however materially in the colour of the wing-sheaths, which are of the richest reddish chesnut-brown, while the thorax, as in the former, is of a brilliant gold-colour, with a cast of green. It is a native of India. Bupjxstis vittata of Fabricius is a species of a more slender shape than the two immediately pre^ ceding, and is of a bright gold-green colour, with a broad band of the most brilliant reddish gold' colour running down each of the wing-sheaths: this also is a native of India. The European insects of this genus fall far short of the Indian and American species both in QO BUPRESTIS. point of size and splendor, though among them may be numbered several elegant insects. One of the largest is the Buprestis rusticay mea- suring about half an inch or rather more, and of a coppery colour, with several longitudinal furrows along the wing-shells, the thorax being of a deep blue-green, with numerous impressed points : it is found in woods. Buprestis salicis of Fabricius is much smaller, but of brighter colours; the wing-sheaths being of a reddish gold-colour, inclining to green towards the sutures, and the thorax bright green, with two impressed blue spots: it is sometimes found on willows. K^J ,fem/s/7-m/7/s I/zrv D .fe7??7Strir7/j P?/p D /^/7/V7//?////j" iS,>3 On ■:, Lcw1o}i l':ihhsli.-d h CK-arj'lc I- l-'lfrtStriY/ DYTISCUS. DYTISCUS. Generic Character. jintenni>li,tha/' h- C..E£ar^k\:FUiffStra<^. MELOE. 105 used as an embrocation on the parts affected : for this purpose also the oil expressed from the whole insect has been used with equal success. The female of this species deposits her eggs, which are very small, and of an orange colour, in a large heap or mass beneath the surface of the ground : each eggf when viewed by the microscope, ap- pears of a cylindric shape, with rounded ends: from these are hatched the Larvae, which, at their first appearance, scarcely measure a line in length, and are of an ochre-yellow, with black eyes : they are furnished with short antennae, six legs of mo- derate length, and a long, jointed, tapering body, terminated by two forking filaments or processes. These larvae are found to live by attaching themselves to other insects and absorbing their juices. They are sometimes seen strongly fasten- ed to common flies, &c. a practice so extraordinary as to have caused considerable doubt whether they could possibly have been the real larvae of the Meloe Proscarabaeus. The accurate observations of Degeer however have completely proved that they immediately fasten themselves to any insect, whether living or dead, that is placed near them. It is therefore probable that in their natural sub- terraneous state they attach themselves in a si- milar manner to the larvae of the larger beetles, worms, &c. &c. The Meloe scabrosus* extremely resembles the preceding, and is found in similar situations, but * Marsham Entom. Britann. io6 MELOE. differs in being of a reddish purple colour, with a cast of deep gilded green. Meloe vesicatorius, Blister-FIy, or Spanish-FJy, is an insect of great beauty, being entirely of the richest gilded grass-green, with black antennag. Its shape is lengthened, and the abdomen, which is pointed, extends somewhat beyond the wing- sheaths: its usual length is about an inch. This celebrated insect, the Cantharis of the Materia Medica, forms, as is well known, the safest and most efficacious epispastic or blister-plaister, rais- ing, after the space of a few hours, the cuticle, and causing a plentiful serous discharge from the skin. It is supposed however that the Cantharis of Dios- corides, or that used by the ancients for the same purpose, was a different species, viz. the Meloe Cichorei* of Linnseus, an insect nearly equal in. size to the M. Proscarabneus, and of a black colour, with three transverse yellow bands on the wing-shells. The Meloe vesicatorius is principally found in the warmer parts of Europe, as Spain, the South of France, &c. It is also observed, though far less plentifully, in some parts of our own country. * See a dissertation on this subject in the sixth volume of the Amoenitates Academicae. The Chinese still use it instead of our Cantharides. 38 MoKDEXjILA M. artilf>at(i . nith antenna 6c Ipqs tiiacfiiined peTJata/ bicclor. 1^ ^ i(>i\t,Ccl^ I Leaden. PiUilishfAl if C.Jle' II •/; ■-/laic/tc'tl^ i ■cu/ia ./O M'Ot-uHiJu.- ^rctjf^. 2^hfJ l;\- frJif-tr.,lf\- Fleet Stii'it. LOCUST. 14 i fers greatly from the rest. It is of an uncouth, and even formidable aspect, measuring more than two inches in length j and is of a broad and slightly flattened shape, of a dusky brown colour, with a ferruginous cast on the under parts, and is readily distinguished by the extraordinary struc- ture of its fore-legs, which are excessively strong, and furnished with very broad feet djvided into several sharp, claw-shaped segments, with which it is enabled to burrow under ground in the manner of a Mole: the lower wings, which, when ex- panded, are very large, are, in their usual state, so complicated under the very short and small upper-wings or sheaths, that their ends alone ap- pear, reaching, in a sharpened form, along the middle of tlie back; the abdomen is terminated by a pair of sharp-pointed, lengthened, hairy pro- cesses, nearly equalling the length of the antennae in front, and contributing to give this animal an appearance in some degree similar to that of a Blatta. The Mole-Cricket emerges from its subterrane- ous retreats only by night, when it creeps about the surface, and occasionally employs its wings in flight. It prepares for its eggs an oval nest, mea- suring about two inches in its longest diameter: this nest is situated a hand's breadth below the surface of the ground: it is accurately smoothed within, and is furnished with an obliquely curved passage leading to the surface. The eggs are about two hundred and fifty or three hundred in number, nearly round, of a deep brownish yellow 142 LOCUST* colour, and of the size of common shot: on the'' approach of winter, or any great change of weather, these insects are said to remove the nest, by sinking it deeper *, so as to secure it from the power of frost, and when the spring commences, again raising it in proportion to the warmth of the season, till at length it is brought so near the surface as to receive the full influence of the air and sunshine: but should unfavourable weather again take place, they again sink the precious deposit, and thus preserve it from danger. Tlie eggs are usually deposited in the month of June or July, and the young are hatched in Au- gust. At their first exclusion they are about the size of ants, for which, on a cursory view, they might be mistaken; but on a close inspection are easily known by their broad feet, &c. In about the space of a month they are grown to the length of more than a quarter of an inch; in two months upwards of three quarters; and in three moijths to the length of more than an inch. Of this length they are usually seen during the close of autumn, after which they retire deep beneath the surface; not appearing again till the ensuing spring. Dur- ing their growth they cast their skin three or four times. The Mole-Cricket lives entirely on vegetables. * This is affirmed by Goedart, but is disbelieved by Reaumur and Roesel ; and it appears from experiment that tlie nest always requires to be kept in a moist situation; the eggs, if exposed to a dry air, being entirely shrivelled and destroyed. O-I^TXiUS , 61 (t. Jlonst/'osus ■ JJtrnjtirh ^\7/^ jet>^. l\-c' / linJi'n.7W//.>/i,€/ /'I /:Aiww/i\ t'la:i ^*'li\a. LOCUST. 143 devouring the young roots of grasses, corn, and various esculent plants, and commits great de- vastation in gardens. It is found in most parts of Europe, and in the northern parts of Asia and America. In South-America is found a species of a still more uncouth appearance than the Gryllotalpa, being of a larger size, with the wings running out into a pair of long, narrow convolutions, reaching far beyond the bodyj while all the legs are longer than is usual in this genus, and have the feet fur- nished on each side with several oval, foliaceous processes: the whole animal is of a brown colour, with a large head, and very strong jaws. It would be unnecessary to add, that the small insects commonly termed Grasshoppers belong to this genus. FULGORA. LANTERN-FLY. Generic Character, CapuHroTxte producta,inani. Antenrus infra oculos, ar- ticulis duobus ; exteriore globoso majore. Rostrum inflexum. Pedes gressorii. Head produced into an in- flated hollow front. Antenna beneath the eyes, of two joints, the exterior larger and globose. Snout inflected. Feet formed for walking. X HIS highly singular genus is distinguished by having the Antennae formed by two very short joints, the exterior of which is globular, and tip- ped by a short hair : they are seated immediately beneath the eyes : the snout is strait, and inflected beneath the breast, and the feet are formed for walking. The Fulgora Lanternaria or Peruvian Lantern- Fly is undoubtedly one of the most curious of in- sects: it is of a very considerable size, measuring nearly three inches and a half from the tip of the front to that of the tail, and about five inches and a half from wing's end to wing's end when ex- panded: the body is of a lengthened oval shape, roundish or subcylindric, and divided into several rings or segments : the head is nearly equal to the length of the rest of the animal, and is oval, inflated. J? i'rj^ooiiA. 2'^. Lnnfrninna ifioi.Oct^iZrrufcn.rublu'hfd b\ liJicir.iUv.JFJtet Stt-f^r. LANTERN-FLY. 145 and bent slightly upwards: the ground-colour is an elegant yellow, with a strong tinge of green in some parts, and marked with numerous bright red-brown variegations in the form of stripes and spots : the wings are very large, of a yellow colour, most elegantly varied with brown undula- tions and spots, and the lower pair are decorated by a very large eye-shaped spot on the middle of each, the iris or border of the spot being red, and the centre half red and half semitransparent white: the head or lantern is pale yellow, with longitudi- nal red stripes. This beautiful insect is a native of Surinam and many other parts of South-Ame- rica, and during the night diffuses so strong a phosphoric splendor from its head or lantern that it may be employed for the purpose of a candle or torch; and it is said that three or four of the in- sects, tied to the top of a stick, are frequently used by travellers for that purpose. The celebrated ^ladam Merian, in her work on the Insects of Surinam, gives a very agreeable account of the surprize into which she was thrown by the first view of the flashes of light proceeding from these Insects. " The Indians once brought me," says she, " before I knew that they shone by night, a number of these Lantern-Flies, which I shut up in a large wooden box. In the night they made such a noise that I awoke in a fright, and ordered a light to be brought; not knowing from whence the noise proceeded. As soon as we found that it came from the box, w^e opened it; but were still much more alarmed, and let it fall to the ground V. VL p. I. 10 146 LANTERN-FLY. in a fright, at seeing a flame of fire come out of it j and as many animals as came out, so many flames of fire appeared. When we foiuid this to be the case, we recovered from our fright, and again collected the insects, highly admiring tl;ieir splendid appearance." Dr. Darwin,. in a note to some lines relative to luminous insects, in his beautiful poem the Loves of the Plants, makes Madam Merian affirm that she drew and fmished her figure of the insect by its own light. On examination however, I cannot find the least authority for this declaration on the part of Madam Merian, who relates only what is above stated, with the observation that the light of one of the insects is sufficient to read a common news-paper by. It may be proper to add, that this celebrated lady falls into a mistake in supposing that a species of Cicada, which she represents on the same plate with the Lantern-Fly, was its larva; and that it gradually was transformed into the Fulgora. This information indeed she merely gives as the popular report, but at the same time takes the liberty of representing the insect in its supposed half-complete state, with the head of the Fulgora, and the Avings and body of the Cicada. I cannot conclude the description of this species without giving due praise to the exquisite repre- sentation of Roesel, who has engraved it both with its wings closed and expanded. Degeer observes that the beautiful colours with which Roesel's figures are adorned were not perceptible either in the specimens examined by himself, or in those LANTERN-FLY. 147 described by Reaumur. In the Leverian Museum however are a fine pair of these insects, which, though now somewhat faded, at their first intro- duction fully justified the colouring of Roesel and Merian, and left no doubt of the richly variegated appearance of the animal in its living state. The Fulgora Candelaria is a much smaller species than the preceding, and is a native of China. It measures near two inches in length, and 2 inches and half in breadth with the wings expanded: the body is oval, and the head produced into a long horn-sliaped process: the colours are very elegant ; the head and horn being of a fine reddish brown or purple, and covered with numerous white specks of a mealy appearance : the thorax is of a deep or orange-yellow, and the body black above, but deep yellow beneath: the wings are oval; the upper pair blackish, with very numerous and close-set green reticulations, dividing the whole surface into innumerable squares or marks, and are farther decorated by several yellow bars and spots: the under wings are orange-coloured, with broad black tips. Fulgora Diadema is an Indian species, and is distinguished by having a long, spiny, or muri- cated front, with a triple division at the tip: its colour is brown, with red and yellow variega- tions: it seems to have been first described and figured in the work of Seba: in size it is nearly similar to the preceding species. In the twelfth edition of the Systema Naturae the number of species in the genus Fulgora 148 LANTERN-FLY. amounted only to nine: it has since been increas- ed to the number of twenty-five. Of these most are exotic, but two are natives of our own island : they are very small, and undistinguished by any shining quality. 33 spmosa ClCABA.. ^^ auritoy lanata pleba/j lar^ i^o<, Oct^iLcTidc/iiAijhKjfiedhv 6:K/f\- . Fleet Strtet. CICADA. CICADA. Generic Character Rostrum inflexum. Antenna brevissimse, seta- ceae. Alte quatuor, membrana- cese, deflexae. Pedes plerisque saltatorii. Snout inflected. Antenna very short, seta- ceous. IVings four, membranace- ous, deflected. Feet in most species formed for leaping. Oi 'F this genus the most common European species is the Cicada plebeja of Linnaeus. This is the insect so often commemorated by the ancient poets, and so generally confounded by the major part of translators with the Grasshopper. It is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, and particularly of Italy and Greece j appearing in the hotter months of summer, and continuing its shrill chirj^iag during the greatest part of the day; generally sitting among the leaves of trees. These insects proceed from eggs deposited by the parent in and about the roots of trees, near the ground. They hatch into larvae, which, when grown to their full size, are the Tettigometree of the ancient writers j and after having continued 150 CICADA. in this state of larva near two years, cast their skins, and produce the complete insect. The ancients differ in their opinions relative to the Cicadas. Virgil speaks of them as insects of a disagreeable and stridulous tone*. On the contrary, Anacreon compliments them on their musical note, and makes the Cicada a favourite of Apollo. " Happy Insect ! blithe and gay. Seated on the sunny spray. And drank with dew, the leaves among. Singing sweet thy chirping song! All the various season's treasures. All the products of the plains Thus lie open to thy pleasures. Fa v' rite of the rural swains. On thee the Muses fix their choice. And Phoebus adds his own. Who first inspir'd thy lively voice And tun'd the pleasing tone. Thy cheerfbl note in wood and vale Fills every heart with glee; And summer smiles in double charms While thus proclaim'd by thee. Like Gods canst thou the nectar sip, A lively chirping elf; From labour free, and free from care, A little God thyself 1" There is also a very pleasing and elegant tale f, * Bucol. 2. &c. f SseA^itiq: vdrah: narrat: lib. 1. Strab. geogi\ lib, 6. CICADA. 151 related by ancient authors, of two rival* musi- cians alternately playing for a prize; when one of the candidates was so unfortunate as to break a string of his lyre; by which accident he would certainly have failed; when a Cicada, flying near, happened to settle on his Lyre, and by its own note supplied the defective string, and thus en- abled the favoured candidate to overcome his an- tagonist. So remarkable was the event, that a statue was erected to perpetuate the memory of it, in which a man is represented playing on a lyre, on which sits a Cicada. Notwithstanding these romantic attestations in favor of the Cicada, it is certain that modern ears are offended rather than pleased with its voice, which is so very strong and stridulous that it fatigues by its incessant repetition; and a single Cicada hung up in a cage has been found almost to drown the voice of a whole company. It is to be observed that the male Cicada alone exerts this powerful note; the females being en- tirely mute: hence the old witticism attributed to that incorrigible sensualist Xenarchus the Rho- dian. " Happy the Cicadas' lives. Since they all have voiceless wives !" That a sound so piercing should proceed from so small a body may well excite our astonishment ; and the curious apparatus by which it is produced * Viz. Eunomus of Locris, and Aristo of Rhegium. 152 CICADA. has justly claimed the attention of the most cele- brated investigators. Reaumur and Roesel in par- ticular have endeavoured to ascertain the nature of the mechanism by which the noise is produced, and have found that it proceeds from a pair of concave membranes, seated on each side the first joints of the abdomen: the large concavities of the abdomen, immediately under the two broad la- mellae in the male insect, are also faced by a thin, pellucid, iridescent membrane, serving to increase and reverberate the sound, and a strong muscular apparatus is exerted for the purpose of moving the necessary organs. The Cicada plebeja is thus distinguished by Linnaeus as a species*, viz. Cicada with the tip of the scutellum bidentated, and the upper wings marked with four anastomoses and six ferruginous lines. In this division of the genus Cicada are several large and elegant insects, as the Cicada hannatodeSy distinguished by its body of a polished black colour, with the divisions of the abdomen marked by so many scarlet rings or bands, and the Cicada atrata, which is of a fine black, varied beneath with yellow streaks in the direction of the abdo- minal and thoracic divisions: the wings are black to some distance from the base. In this tribe also ranks the Cicada viridis, a large species, na- * It is to be observed however that from a great general similarity between the Cicadse of this division or tribe, it is diffi- cult to form specific characters sufficiently distinctive j and it ipay be doubted whetlier the present be so. CICADA. 153 tive of New Holland, of a beautiful green colour, with the transparent wings ornamented by green veins. Among the smaller European Cicadie one of the most remarkable is the Cicada spumuria or Cuc- kow-spit Cicada, so named from the circumstance of its larva being constantly found enveloped in a mass of white froth adhering to the leaves and stems of vegetables. This froth, which is popu- larly known by the name of Cuckow-Spittle, is found during the advanced state of summer, and is the production of the included larva, which, from the time of its hatching from the egg deposited by the parent insect, continues, at intervals, to suck the juices of the stem on which it resides, and to discharge them from its vent in the form of very minute bubbles, and by continuing this operation, completely covers itself with a large mass of froth; which is sometimes so overcharged with moisture, that a drop may be seen hanging from its under surface. The included larva, or pupa, (for no ma- terial difference can be observed between these two states,) when arrived at its full growth, is about the fifth of an inch in length, of an oval shape, with broad head and thorax, and slightly point- ed abdomen: its colour is a beautiful pale green, and the trunk or sucker with which it extracts the sap of the plant, may be observed by examining the under part of the thorax, where it will be seen pressed down in a strait direction from the head. When the time arrives in which the animal is to undergo its change into the complete insect, it 154 CICADA. ceases to absorb any longer the juices of the plant and to discharge the protecting froth, which, at this period, forms a vaulted canopy over the in- sect, instead of entirely investing it as before : the skin of the larva is gradually thrown off, and the animal in its complete form emerges from its con- cealment. Its size is scarcely superior to that of the larva, but its colour is brown, with a pair of broad, irregular, pale or whitish bands across the upper wings. If disturbed, it nimbly springs to a great distance, and is commonly known by the name of the Froghopper, from some fancied resem- blance to the colour and shape of that animal in miniature. These insects breed during the month of September, and towards the beginning of Oc- tober deposit their eggs, which are not hatched till the succeeding spring. Of similar size and shape to the preceding is the Cicada sangii'molenta, but of a deep black colour, with two scarlet bands across the wings, the body being varied with red and black. Among the most singular Cicadas are those in which the thorax is raised perpendicularly into a large and flat leaf-like membrane or process : these are of exotic extraction, and the most re- markable is the Cicada rhomhea of Linuteus, which is a native of Jamaica, and of a brown colour: the thoracic process is of a rhomboid shape, and widest at the hind part. u ~^G'IG~SYA'T.\. Striata. Lflauca o lari'a .ACCri/?!^ sculp iSo^. Oct"^/ /.ondorv. fu/t/gj-Pia/ i^,' (^Mar^/et: F/txf Street . NOTONECTA. NOTONECTA. Generic Character. Rostrum inflexum. jdntennce thorace breviores. Al/e quatuor,cruciato-com- plicatae. Pedes posteriores pilosi, na- tatorii. Snout inflected. Antenna shorter than tho- rax. Wings coriaceous on the upper part, and crossed over each other. Hind-Feet edged with hairs, and formed for swimming. X H E principal species of this genus is the No- tonecta glauca, a very common aquatic insect, in- habiting stagnant waters, and generally measur- ing about three parts of an inch in length. Its colour is grey-brown, and the upper wings are marked along the edges by a row of minute black specks. This insect is usually seen swimming on its back, in which situation it bears a most striking resemblance to a boat in miniature, the hind-legs acting like a pair of oars, and impelling the animal at intervals through the water. It preys on the smaller inhabitants of the water, and flies only by night. Notonecta striata is much smaller than the pre- ceding, not measuring more than a quarter of an inch in length, and is of a yellowish grey colour. 156 NOTONECTA. with numerous transverse undulated black lines pi* streaks: it is found in stagnant waters. Notonecta mmutissima is an extremely small species, with grey wings, marked by longitudinal dusky spots: like the two former, it is an inhabit- ant of stagnant waters, but is far less frequently observed than the rest, on account of its very small size. 'iA ^WPA. ^ffrjh (frnndi^ cuifrcii NEPA. NEPA. Generic Character. Host rum inflexum. uilip quatuor, cruciato-com- plicatae, antice coriaceae. Pedes anteriores cheli- formes, reliqui quatuor ambulatorii. Snout inflected. Wings four, cross-compli- cate, coriaceous on the upper part. Fore-Feet cheliform, the rest formed for walk- ing. JL HIS genus, like that of Notonecta, is aquatic, inhabiting stagnant waters, and preying on the smaller water-insects, &c. The largest species yet known, and which very far surpasses in size all the European animals of the genus, is the Nepa gratidis, which is a native of Surinam and other parts of South-America, often measuring more than three inches in lencrth. Its colour is a dull yellowish brown, with a few darker shades or variegations: the under wings are of a semitrans- parent white colour, and the abdomen is termin- ated by a short tubular process. Madam Merian represents this species, in her Surinam Insects, as preying on tadpoles and young frogs. Nepa cinerea or the Common Water-Scorpion, 158 NEPA. is a very frequent inhabitant of stagnant waters in our own country, measuring about an inch in length, and appearing, when the wings are closed, entirely of a dull brown colour; but, when the wings are expanded, the body appears of a bright red colour above, with a black longitudinal band down the middle: and the lower wings, which are of a fine transparent white, are decorated with red veins: from the tail proceeds a tubular bifid process or style, nearly of the length of the body, and which appears single on a general view, the two valves of which it consists being generally applied close to each other throughout their whole length. The animal is of slow motion, and is often found creeping about the shallow parts of ponds, &c. In the month of May it deposits its eggs on the soft surface of the mud at the bottom of the water : they are of a singular shape, resem- bling some of the crowned seeds, having an oval body, and an upper part surrounded by seven radiating processes or curved spines: the young, when first hatched, are not more than the eighth of an inch in length. The Water-Scorpion flies only by night, when it wanders about the fields in the neighbourhood of its native waters. The larvae and pupae differ in appearance from the complete insect in having only the rudiments of wings, and being of a paler or yellower colour. Nepa cimicoides of Linnaeus differs materially from the preceding species, and has, at first view, more the aspect of a Notonecta than a Nepa, the :n'e,pao S6 dnuceicies dfmccul^^ iSrj (7<:J^ri£t^>ui-7t fuiH^rAfd hi- /■; A>wj/n:/^y<-^f.>'f'r,-f . NEPA. 159 liind legs being formed for swimming briskly, and furnished with an, edging of hairs on the inner side: it also bears a resemblance to the generality of the Cimices, in its broadly ovate shape: the thorax and upper wings are pale brown ; the lower wings transparent white, and the back, which appears only when the wings are expanded, is of a fine blueish black: the sides of the abdo- men are serrated: the under surface is of a pale yellowish brown, with blue-green thorax: the fore- feet or chelae are very short, and the abdomen is simple, or destitute of any lengthened process. This insect is less common than the preceding, but is found in similar situations. Nepa linearis is an insect of a highly singular aspect, bearing a distant resemblance to some of the smaller insects of the genus Mantis and Phasma. It measures about an inch and half from the tip of the snout to the beginning of the abdo- minal style or process, which is itself of equal length to the former part, and the whole animal is extremely slender in proportion to its length: the legs also are long and slender, and the chelae or fore-legs much longer in proportion than those of the second species or Nepa cinerea: the colour of the animal is dull yellowish brown, the back, when the wings are expanded, appearing of a brownish red, and the under wings white and transparent. It inhabits the larger kind of stag- nant waters, frequenting the shallower parts dur- ing the middle of the day, when it may be ob- served to prey on the smaller water insects, &c. l60 NEPA. Its motions are singular; often striking out all its legs in a kind of starting manner at intervals, and continuing this exercise for a considerable time. The eggs are smaller than those of the Nepa cinerea, of an oval shape, and furnished with two processes or bristles divaricating from the top of each. 'J>IEX, o7 IcUipe^f^ flay ice UiS staanorunv vaJidiLS anradatus: ^ cci-tiaitus iCt^ruTtikr ^'fu/p. iSo^ Oct''.i'''^LcnAcrv,ruhlieheJ bv G^.Kearj-ley. FU^t Stredl. CIMEX. BUG. Generic Character. nostrum inflexum. Antennee thorace longiores. ALe quatuor, cruciato-com- plicatse, superioribus an- tice coriaceis. Dorsum planum, thorace marginato. Pedes cursorii. Snout inflected. AntenncelongexihdLnthoxdiTi. Wings four, cross-compli- cate, the upper pair cori- aceous on the upper part. Back flat, %vith tlie thorax margined. Feet formed for running. Oi F this very numerous genus one species alone is apterous or destitute of wings; viz. that trouble- some and otTensive insect the Chnej: lectularius or common domestic Bug; now so frequent a nui- sance in the metropolis as well as in most parts of the country, though in a great degree unknown in England in the days of our ancestors. It is indeed affirmed by a writer* who has given a professed * See " A Treatise of Bugs" by J. Southall. Lond. 1/30. 8vo. This man, who practised the art of destroying these insects in houses, affirms with confidence that the application of his liquor, (the receipt of wliich he obtained from an old Negro in America,) to the holes or crevices of places containing them, immediately caused them to come out in great numbers and immediately die. "On the application, (says he) of this liquor, at all seasons of the year, they will come out, and immediately die before your face." V. VI. r. I. U 162 BUG. treatise on this animal, that it was scarcely known in England before the year 1670, when it was im- ported among the timber used in rebuilding the city of London after the great fire of 1666. That it was however known much earlier is hardly to be doubted, though probably far less common than at present; since Mouffet informs us that Dr. Penny, one of the early compilers of that History of Insects, relates his having been sent for in great haste to Mortlake in Surry to visit two noble ladies who imagined themselves seized with the usual symptoms of the plague; but on Penny's demonstrating to them the true cause of their complaint, viz, having been bitten by these insects, and even detecting them in their pre- sence, the whole affair was turned into a jest. This was in the year 1583. To give a particular description of an animal so Avell known would be superfluous: it may be sufficient to observe, that it is of an oval shape, about the sixth of an inch in length, of a very compressed or flat form, and of a reddish brown colour. It is easily destroyed by pressure, being, of a very tender nature, and when bruised diffuses a highly unpleasant smell. In the beginning of summer it deposits its eggs, which are very small, white, and of an oval shape, each standing on a kind of short pedicle or footstalk, in the cavities of walls or wood-work, and from these are hatched, in the course of a few weeks*, the young, which * Three weeks, according to Southall. . BUG. 163 differ from the parent insect in no other respect than size and colour, being at first mucli paler than when more advanced in their growth; not arriving at their full size in less than about three months. They live entirely by suction, employ- ing for this purpose their sharp and fine trunk or proboscis, which is carried in a strait direction beneath the breast. It is probable that this in- sect, like the Gnat and some others, at first infuses some quantity of irritating fluid into the wound it makes, before it sucks the blood of the animal it attacks, since the swelling which it causes is often very considerable, and attended with severe itch- ing. During the winter months these animals secrete themselves behind walls, wainscotting, or any neglected places, where they are capable of supporting the most intense frost without injury, and on the return of warm weather again emerge from their concealment. When confined in a box for any length of time they will often attack and destroy each other. It is affirmed by Scopoli, whose observations are, in general, distinguished by great accuracy, that this insect, in the Dutchy of Carniola, is, at certain seasons, furnished with wings, though apterous in other parts of Europe. Mr. Baker, in his work entitled " The Microscope made easy" informs us that the Bug is one of the best subjects for exhibiting a microscopic view of the circulation of the blood. " In the legs of small punices or Bugs (says this writer) the cir- culation is remarkably visible, together with an extraordinary vibration of the vessels, \vhich I l64 I5UG. have never observed in any other creature: in these too, if clear, as they may sometimes be found, the wonderful motions of all the internal parts will afford an agreeable entertainment to the curious, and may be examined as long and as often as they please; for I have kept a Bug alive in a slider between two pieces of isinglass at least six weeks together, notwithstanding it was con- fined so close as to be uncapable of stirring; and although during that time it often seemed dead and motionless when I placed it before the micro- scope, a little warmth would set the bowels in motion, and renew the cvurent of the blood as briskl}^ as ever." A variety of this Insect is sometimes seen, which is generally known by the name of the American Bug ; it is of a longer shape than the common species. So very numerous is the genus Cimex, that it is found necessary to divide it into several sections, according to the general shape or habit of the In- sects. Among those in which the scutellum or triangular part between the setting on of the wings is of equal length with the body the Cimed' lineatus may serve as an example, which is of a black colour, varied with yellow, having five yellow lines down the thorax, and three on the scutellum, and the abdomen yellow with black spots. It is a native of Barbary and some of the Southern parts of Europe, Of those in which the upper wings are of a much more strong or coriaceous nature than the BUG. 165 rest, so as to give the insects an appearance some- what resembling the beetle tribe, we may select, as an example, the Cime.v davicornis, a smallish species, of a yellowish grey colour, and of an oval shape, with strongly veined and reticulated wings, and clavated antennae. It is found in many parts of Europe. Of the flat or membranaceous species the most remarkable is the Cime.r corticatus of Drury, which is a native of the Brasils, and measures near an inch in length: its colour is a pale 3'^ellowish or reddish brown, and its whole aspect rather re- sembles a piece of thin vegetable bark, cut or nicked into the form of an insect. Of those in which the thorax is sharply spined on each side, the Cime.v acantharis is one of the most remarkable: it is of an oblong shape, with the abdomen as well as the thorax sharply spined on the edges: its colour is brown and it is a native of Jamaica. Of those in which the shoulders project on each side into the form of an obtuse spine, the common English species called the Green Cimex, Chjie.r baccarum of Linnaeus may stand as an example: this insect, which is of a beautiful green colour, measures nearly half an inch in length, and when the wings are expanded the back appears of a fine blueish black colour. It is observed towards the end of Summer in fields and gardens, and often varies in being of a brown rather than a green colour. Among those with setaceous antennae is the i66 BUG. Cime.v personatus, of a black colour, a lengthened shape, and an unpleasant aspect: its larva how- ever is still much more so, appearing generally as if enveloped in a rough coating of grey dust, or fragments of down, &c. owing to the natural vis- cidity of its body and limbs, and its frequenting neglected- corners of houses among dust, &c. It is an enemy to the common house-bug, and de- stroys it wherever it finds it, but, if it were possi- ble to introduce it in sufficient quantity for this purpose, the remedy, as Degeer very properly observes, would be far worse than the complaint; since it has the same propensity with the common bug, and is of a much larger size, and of a more disagreeable aspect. The complete insect flies only by night, and appears towards the decline of summer. Of the oblong-bodied Cimices the Cimex Hy- oscyami is one of the most remarkable, and is a beautiful insect: it is not uncommon on the plant Henbane, and is of a bright red and black colour, with brown wings. Among those with setaceous antennas of the length of the body is the Chnex Populi: its colour is a clouded variegation of black, brown, and white: it is found on the Aspen-tree. Of those with spiny legs, one of the most re- markable is the Cime.v phyllopus. It is of a blackish colour, with a pale band across the upper part of the wings; and the tibias or second joints of the hind-legs are expanded into a kind of leaf-like ap- pearance, and marked with white spots: it is a BUG. 167 native of North-America and the West-Indian islands. Lastly, of those which are of an extremely long or linear form, none are so remarkable as the Cime.v stagiiorum of Linnaeus, which is often seen slowly wandering about the surface of stagnant waters. It measures something more than half an inch in length, and is entirely of a deep black colour: it is distinguished by the remarkable cir- cumstance of a round globule, situated on each side the middle of the thorax. Cimex lacustris is also found on the surface of stagnant waters, but is of a less lengthened form than the preceding, of a brown colour, and in its motions is a perfect contrast to the former ; springing with wonderful velocity, in all direc- tions, over the waters, and generally assembling in considerable numbers during the hotter part of the day. It is described by Mouffet and others under the title of Tipula, and is supposed to have t)een the Tipula of the ancients, APHIS. APHIS. Generic Character. Rostrum inflexum. Antenna thorace longiores. Alie quatuor erecta", aiit nullae. Pedes ambulatorii. Abdomen postice saepius bicorne. Snout inflected. Antemice longer than thorax. Wings either four upright, or none. Feet formed for walking. Abdomen generally furnish- ed with two horns or pro- cesses. Jr ROM a great degree of general similarity in the insects of this genus, their true specific charac- ters are often very difficultly determinable. They frequent the leaves, stems, and tender shoots of plants and trees, and are popularly known by the name of Plant-Lice. They are observed to be viviparous in summer, and oviparous in autumn; but the most wonderful part of their history is the power of continued impregnation, through a great many descents, as far as the fifth, eighth, twelfth, and even, according to some observa- tions, the twenty-seventh generation. A pregnant female Aphis, kept by itself, produces perfectly formed young ones, which, though kept separate, will, after a certain period, produce others, which API 11. '5c J8 dp hides sli^Mx' /////////////// JdoJ. OctC I Zi>/ut,7n.. /^'M:<-Aju:i M^ 6.A,w/:s-i^: /'Uv^ Si/ ■■■/ . APHIS. 169 are also themselves impregnated, and thus the breed may be continued as before mentioned. This wonderful faculty in the insects of the pre- sent genus appeared, at its first publication, so extraordinary as to excite no small degree of scepticism in the philosophical world. The ob- servations however of Bonnet, Reaumur, Lyonett, and others have amply confirmed its truth. Lee- wenhoek had long before observed that these in- sects were viviparous. Bonnet, whose observa- tions were continued with the utmost accuracy, assures us that the female Aphides continue to produce their young throughout the whole sum- mer ; that the males appear only in autumn ; and that the females are at that period oviparous. The ova which are thus deposited during the autumn do not hatch till the succeeding spring. It is however uncertain whether the same individual insects which have produced perfect young during the summer become oviparous during the autumn, or whether the oviparous autumnal ones ever pro- duce living young; the preceding observations relating only to the species at large. The Aphides in general are very prolific insects. Reaumur computes that each Aphis may produce about ninety young, and that, in consequence, in five generations, the descendants from a single insect would amount to five thousand nine hundred and four million, nine hundred thousand. The Aphides are very prejudicial to many trees and plants by absorbing the juices of the tender shoots and leaves, which latter they cause to 1/0 APHIS. cockle or warp in such a manner as to form one or mdre large concavities beneath, and in which the insects generally reside in great multitudes. In some years they are so numerous as to cause almost a total failure of hop and potatoe planta- tions : in other years the pease are equally injured, while exotics raised in stoves and green-houses are frequently destroyed by their depredations. They are also supposed to be the chief, if not the sole cause of that viscid exsudation or moisture so often observed on the leaves of various trees, and popularl}^ known by the title of honey-dew ; which is said to be nothing more than the excrementiti- ous substance evacuated by these insects from the hinder part of the body and from the two tubulaj? processes at the tip of the abdomen. Of the British Aphides one of the largest and most remarkable is the Aphis SaliciSy which is found on the different kinds of Willows, and is nearly a quarter of an inch in length, and of a yellowish grey colour, spotted with black. When bruised these insects stain the fingers of a red colour. Towards the end of September, accord- ing to the observations of Mr. Curtis, multitudes of the full grown insects of this species, both winged and others, desert the willows on which they feed, and ramble over every neighbouring object in such numbers that we can handle no- thing in their vicinity without crushing some of them ; while those in a younger or less advanced state still remain in large masses upon the trees. Aphis MillefoUi of Degeer, or the Yarrow Aphis APHIS. 171 is SO named from its being principally found on that well-known plant. It is a rather small species, and is of a green colour, spotted with black: the males are generally winged, and are smaller and more slender than the females. Jlljiis lios(e or Rose Aphis is very frequent dur- ing the summer months on the young shoots and buds of roses: its size is nearly similar to that of the Yarrow Aphis, and its colour a bright green: the males are furnished with large transparent winirs, o Aphis Tilice or the Limc-Trees Aphis is one of the most beautiful of the genus. It is of nearly the same size with the Aphis Rosae, but of a pale greenish yellow colour, with a row of black, cres- cent-shaped spots down each side of the abdomen, and a black stripe on each side the thorax: the wings are beautifully transparent, with brown nerves or veins, a black edging down the shoulder- part, and several dusky patches toward the tips. In the sixth volume of the Transactions of the Linnaean Society of London we find an excellent paper on the subject of these animals by the late ingenious Mr. Curtis. " The leaves (says he) of such trees and plants as have a firm texture and strong fibres, though infested with these insects, preserve their form; but the more tender foliage of others, and flowers in general, cannot bear their punctures without curling up and becoming dis- torted; in consequence of which they lose their ieauty entirely and irretrievably. The cultivators of plants, especially in stoves and greenhouses. 172 APHIS. cannot be too much on their guard against the whole tribe of Aphides; for with what pleasure can a large choice collection be viewed, when there is scarcely a plant but what exhibits symp- toms of disease occasioned by vermin?" " As the species of this genus are very numer- ous, and afford but few marks of distinction, Linnaeus has contented himself with giving most of them trivial names according to the particular plant on which they are found : a close attention to them will however disclose more distinctive cha- racters than naturalists are aware of. Of some of the circumstances attendant on the propagation of these minute animals accounts are related, de- viating so wonderfully from the common course of Nature, that they could not be credited, were not the authors of them known to be men of the nicest and most accurate observation, and of the strictest veracity. On this part of the subject I have little to say from my own observation, but as some ac- count of so extraordinary a part of their history may be expected in a paper of this sort, I shall state the facts, simply observing, that neither in the Aphis Salicis, which at times I have watched with great attention, nor in any other species of Aphis, did I ever observe any sexual intercourse to take place, AVhether this may have arisen from the extreme infrequency of such a procedure, or from my not having observed these insects at a proper time of the year, I know not; but most undoubtedly such intercourse does not take place between the different sexes of Aphis as in other APHIS. 173 insects. Yet Mons'. Bonnet, who may be said to have ahnost taken up his ahode with these insects, informs us that he has frequently noticed such connexion, which lie describes as taking place at one certain time of the year only; and that from a female thus impregnated, many successive gene- rations will be produced without any farther im- pregnation. He took the Aphides as soon as brought forth, and kept each individual separate. The females of such brought forth abundance of young. He took the young of these, and treated them precisely in the same manner. The produce was the same: and thus he proceeded to the ninth generation with the same success ; and so far from considering that as the utmost extent of the effect, he thinks it might be carried on to the thirtieth generation. In most species of Aphides, both males and females acquire wings at certain sea- sons; but in this respect they are subject to great variation, there being some males and some females that never have wings; again there are some fe- males that become winged, while others of the same species do not. In the quality of the excre- ment voided by these insects there is something very extraordinary. Were a person accidentally to take up a book in which it was gravely asserted that in some countries there were certain animals which voided liquid sugar, he would soon lay it down, regarding it as a fabulous tale, calculated to impose on the credulity of the ignorant; and yet such is literally the truth. The superior size of the Aphis salic'is will enable the most common 3 74 APHIS. observer to satisfy himself on this head. On look- ing stedfastly for a few minutes on a groiipe of these insects while feeding on the bark of the willow, one perceives a few of them elevate their bodies, and a transparent substance evidently drop from them, which is immediately followed by a similar motion, and discharge like a small shower from a great number of others. At first I was not aware that the substance thus dropping from these animals at such stated intervals was their excrement, but was convinced of its being so afterwards; for on a more accurate examination I found it proceed from the extremity of the abdo- men, as is usual in other insects. On placing a piece of writing-paper under a mass of these in- sects, it soon became thickly spotted : holding it a longer time, the spots united from the addition of others, and the whole surface assumed a glossy appearance. I tasted this substance, and found it as sweet as sugar. I had the less hesitation in doing this, having observed that w^asps, ants, flies, and insects w^ithout number, devoured it as quick- ly as it was produced; but were it not for these, it might no doubt be collected in considerable quantities, and if subjected to the processes used with other saccharine juices, might be converted into the choicest sugar or sugar-candy. It is a fact also which appears worthy of noticing here, that though wasps are so partial to this food, yet the bees* appear totally to disregard it." * Yet Mr. White in his History of Selborne obscures that it is *' very grateful to bees, who gather it with great assiduity." APHIS. 175 " In the height of Summer, when the weather is hot and dry, and Aphides are most abundant, the foliage of trees and plants, (more especially in some years than others) is found covered with and rendered glossy by a sweet clammy substance known to persons resident in the country by the name of honey-dexv : they regard it as a sweet sub- stance falling from the atmosphere, as its name implies. The sweetness of this excrementitious substance, the glossy appearance it gave to the leaves it fell upon, and the swarms of insects this matter attracted, first led me to imagine that the honey-dew of plants was no other than this secre- tion, which farther observation has since fully con- firmed. Others have considered it £ls an exsuda- tion from the plant itself. Of the former opinion we find ^he Rev**. Mr. White, one of the latest writers on natural history that has noticed this sub- ject. But that it neither falls from the atmosphere, nor issues from the plant itself is easily demon- strated. If it fell from the atmosphere, it would cover every thing indiscriminately, whereas we never find it but on certain living plants and trees. We find it also on plants in stoves and green- houses covered with glass. If it exsuded from the plant, it would appear on all the leaves generally and uniformly ; whereas its appearance is ex- tremely irregular, not alike on any two leaves of the same tree or plant, some having none of it, and others being covered with it but partially., But the phaenomena of the honey-dew, with all their variations, are easily accounted for by con- 175 APHIS. sidering the Aphides as the authors of it. That they are capable of producing an appearance ex- actly similar to that of the honey-dew has already been shewn. As far as my own observation has extended, there never exists any honey-dew but where there are Aphides; such however often pass unnoticed, being hid on the under-side of the leaf. Wherever honey-dew is observable about a leaf. Aphides will be found on the under side of the leaf or leaves immediately above it, and under no other circumstances whatever. If by accident any thing should intervene between the Aphides and the leaf next between them, there will be no honey-dew on that leaf. Thus then we flatter ourselves to have incontrovertibly proved that the Aphides are the true and only source of the honey- dew." " We have found that where the saccharine - substance has dropped from Aphides for a length of time, as from the Aphis salicis in particular, it gives to the surface of the bark, foliage, or what- ever it has dropped on, that sooty kind of appear- ance which arises from the explosion of gun- powder, which greatly disfigures the foliage, &c. of plants. It looks like and is sometimes mis- taken for a kind of black mildew. We have some grounds for believing that a saccharine substance similar to that of the Aphis drops from the Coccus also, and is finally converted into the same kind of powder." " In most seasons the natural enemies of the Aphides are sufficient to keep them in check, and APHIS. 177 to prevent them from doing any essential injury to plants in the open air. But seasons sometimes occur, very irregularly indeed, on an average, perhaps once in four or six years, in which they are multiplied to such an excess, that the usual means of diminution fail in preventing them from doing irreparable injury to certain crops. In. severe winters we have no doubt that Aphides are very considerably diminished: in very mild win- ters we know they are very considerably increas- ed; for they not only exist during such seasons, but continue to multiply. Their enemies, on the contrary, exist, but do not multiply, at least in the open air, during such periods; and thus the Aphis gets the start of them, and acquires an ascendancy, which once acquired is not easily overcome by artificial means, upon a large scale at least, in the open air. Vain would be the at- tempt to clear a hop-garden of these pernicious vermin, or to rescue any extensive crop from their baneful effects. Violent rains attended with lightning have been supposed to be very effectual in clearing plants of them; but in such case-more is to be attributed to the plants being refreshed and made to grow by the rain, of which they stood in need, than to any destruction of the Aphides themselves, which, on accurate examination, will be found to be as plentiful after such rains as they were before; nor is wet so injurious to these in- sects as many imagine, as is evident from the following experiment. On the l2th of May 1799, I immersed in a glass of wat^r the footstalk of a V. VI. p. I. 12 178 APHIS. leaf of considerable length, taken from a stove plant beset with Aphides of a dark lead-colour, which were feeding on it in great numbers. On immersion they did not quit the stalk, but imme- diately their bodies assumed a kind of luminous appearance from the minute bubbles of air which issued from them. They were put under water at a quarter past six in the evening, and taken out jat a quarter past ten the next morning, having continued immersed sixteen hours. On placing them in the sunshine some of them almost im- mediately shewed signs of life, and three out of four at least survived the immersion. One of the gurvivors, a male, very soon became winged, and another, a female, was delivered of. a young one. Many years before this experiment, with a view to destroy the Aphides, which infested a plant in my green-house, I immersed one evening the whole plant, together with the pot in which it grew, in a tub of water. In the morning I took out the plant, expecting with certainty to find every Aphis dead ; but to my great surprize they soon appeared alive and well: and thus in addi- tion to the other extraordinary phenomena attend- ant on these insects, we find that they are capable of resisting the effects of immersion in water for a great length. When taken from the plant on which they feed and kept under water, they do not survive so long; their struggling in that case perhaps exhausts them sooner. This part of the subject might perhaps be pushed much fiirther: it is sufficient for our purpose to have shewn that APHIS. 179 wet is not so hurtful to them as is generally ima- gined." " Though no mode of destroying Aphides will perha])s ever be devised on a large scale in the open air by artificial means, we can accomplish it most effectually when they infest plants in green- houses and frames, or in any situation in which we can envelop them for a certain time in clouds of smoke. Powders or liquids, however fatal to Aphides, must ever be ineffectual, from the trouble and difficulty of applying them so that they shall come in contact with those insects, situated as they usually are; but in this respect smoke has every advantage; it penetrates and pervades their inmost recesses. The smoke of common veget- ables, however powerful, is found to be inadequate to their destruction, and hitherto no other than that of Tobacco is found to be effectual. That, judiciously applied, completely answers the pur- pose, without injuring the plant. It mostly hap- pens, in well managed houses, that a few plants only are infested with Aphides; in such a case , the smokins: of the whole house is a business of unnecessary expence and trouble; and we would recommend it to persons who have large collec- tions to make use of a box of a commodious form that shall hold about a dozen plants of various sizes, to be used as a sort of hospital, in which the infested plants may be smoaked separately, and the insects more effectually destroyed, because it may be rendered more perfectly smoke-tight." " To prevent the calamities which would in- fallibly result from the accumulated multiplication J 80 APHIS. of the more prolific animals, it has been ordained by the Author of Nature that such should be di- minished by serving ,as food for others. On this principle we find that most animals in this pre- dicament have one or more natural enemies. The helpless Aphis, the scourge of the vegetable kingdom, has to contend with many. The prin- cipal are the Coccinella, the Ichneumon Aphidum, and the Musca aphidivora. Such as are un^ acquainted with the history of insects will learri with surprise that the Coccinella, a common in- sect, well known even to children by the name of the Lady-Bird, is one of the greatest destroyers of the Aphides, which indeed are its only food, its sole support, as well in its perfect as in its larvst or grub state. During the severity of winter this insect secures itself under the bark of trees or elsewhere. When the warmth of spring has ex- panded the foliage of plants, the female deposits its eggs on them in great numbers, from whence in a short time proceeds the larva, a small grub, of a dark lead-colour spotted with orange : these may be observed in the summer season running pretty briskly over all kinds of plants; and if narrowly watched, they will be found to devour the Aphides wherever they find them. The s^e may be observed of the Lady-Bird in its perfect state. As these insects in both their states are very numerous, they contribute powerfully to di- minish the number of Aphides. Another most formidable enemy to the Aphis is a very mmute black and slender Ichneumon fly, which eats its way out of the Aphis, leaving the dry inflated skin APHIS. ] 8-1 of the insect adhering to the leaf like a small pearl. Such may always be found where Aphides are in plenty. We have observed different species of Aphides to be infested with different Ichneumons. In general the torpid Aphis submits quietly to this fatal operation; but we have observed some of them, especially one that feeds on the S\''camore, which is ;iiuch more agile than many of this race, endeavouring to avoid the Ichneumon with great address. There is perhaps no genus of insects which in their larva or maggot state feed on such a variety of food as the Musca or Fly. There is scarcely a part of Nature, either animate or in- animate, in which they are not be met with. One division of them, called by Linnaeus Muscce aphi- divorce, feeAs, entirely on Aphides. Of the different .species of aphidivorous flies, which are numerous, having mostly bodies variegated with transverse stripes, their females may be seen hovering over plants infested with Aphides, among which they deposit their eggs on the surface of the leaf. The larva or maggot produced from such eggs feeds, as soon as hatched, on the younger kinds of Aphis, and as it increases in size, attacks and devours those which are larger. These larvag are usually of a pale colour, adhere closely to the leaf, along which they slowly glide, and are formed very tapering towards the head. When fully grown they change to a pupa or chrysalis attached to the leaf, from whence issues the fly. The larvae of these flies contribute their full share to diminish the despoilers of Flora. To these three kinds of 182 APHIS. insects, which are the chief agents in the hands of Nature for keeping the Aphides witliin their pro- per limits, we may add a few others, which act a subordinate part in this necessary business of de- struction. The larva of the Hemerohius feeds on them in the same manner as that of the Musca aphi- divora, and deposits its eggs also on the leaves of such plants as are beset with Aphides. The eggs of this Hemerobius stand on long filaments, which are attached by a base to the leaf, and have more the appearance of filaments of flowers with their antherae than the eggs of an animal. The number of these insects being comparatively small, they may be considered rather as the casual invaders of their existence than the main host of their de- stroyers. The Earwig, which is itself no con- temptible enemy to plants, makes some atonement for its depredations by destroying the Aphides, especially such as reside in the curled-up leaves of fruit-trees, and the purses formed by certain Aphides on the poplars and other trees. Lastly, we may add as the enemies of these creatures, some of the smaller soft-billed birds, which gene- rally feed on insects, and which may be frequently seen busily employed in picking them from the plants." " When plants assume a sickly appearance, or are disguised by disease, from whatever cause the disease may arise, they are said to be blighted. Blights originate from a variety of causes, the chief of which are unfortunate weather, and in- sects. Two opinions prevail very generally in aphis; 183 regard to blights: the one that the insects which cause them are brought from a distance hy easterly winds; the other that they attach themselves to none but plants already sickly. Neither of these opinions, as far as I have observed, is founded in fact. I am induced from the numerous observa- tions I have made on insects for a series of years, (in pursuing the cultivation of plants) to consider the Aphis as by fiir the most general cause of the diseases distinguished by the name of Blights. Other insects it is true, more especially the larvae of some of the Lepidoptera, as those of the Pha- loince tortrices, disfigure and do infinite mischief to plants by rolling and curling up tlje leaves; but these for the most part confine themselves to certain trees and plants. Their ravages are also of shorter duration, being confined to the growth of one brood, and they are also less fatal. It would be no difficult matter for me to fill a volume with observations to which I have been an eye- witness of the injuries which plants sustain from insects; but that would be foreign to my present purpose, which is to shew that the Aphis is the grand cause of these diseases, and to place the modus operandi or manner in which they effect' this business in its true light." " We are fully aware that certain gregarious insects may at particular times rise up in the air, and if small and light, be impelled by any wind that may chance to blow at the time; and on this principle we account for that shower of Aphides described by Mr. White to have fallen at Selborne." 1S4 APHIS. But certainly this is not the mode in which those insects are usually dispersed over a country. The phaghomenon is too unusual, the distribution would be too partial ; for the Aphides, while at their highest point of multiplication, do not swarm like bees or ants, and fly off in large bodies; but each male or female Aphis, at such periods as they arrive at maturity, marches or flies off, with^ out waiting for any other. Yet it may happen, that from a tree or plant thickly beset with them numbers may fly off; or emigrate together, being arrived at maturity at the same moment of time Detaching itself from the plant, each pursues a different route, intent on the great business of multiplying its species; and settles on such plants in the vicinity as are calculated to afford nourish- ment to its young. The common green Aphis, which is so generally destructive, lives during the winter season on such herbaceous plants as it remained on during the autumn, either in its egg or perfect state. If the weather be mild, it multiplies greatly on such herbage; as the spring advances, in May the males and females of these insects acquire wings; and thus the business of increase, hitherto confined, is widely and rtipidly extended, as the winged Aphides, by Hop-Planters called the Fly, may be seen at this period very generally sitting on plants, and floating in the air in all directions." Mr. Curtis, in the preceding observations on the genus Aphis, having mentioned the shower of Aphides recorded by Mr. White, it cannot but be agreeable to the reader to be made acquainted APHIS. 185 with so curious a phenomenon in the words of its describer. " As we have remarked above that insects are often conveyed from one country to another in a very unaccountable manner, I shall here mention an emigration of small Aphides, which was ob- served in the village of Selborne no longer ago than August the first 1785. At about three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was very hot, the people of this village were surprised by a shower of Aphides or smother-flies, which fell in these parts. Those that were walking in the streets at that juncture found themselves covered with these insects, which settled also on the hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables where they alighted. My annuals were discoloured with them, and the stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over for six days after. These armies were then no doubt in a state of emigration, and shift- ing their quarters; and might have come, as far as we know, from the great hop-plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that day in the easterly quarter. They were observed at the same time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the vale from Farnham to Alton." CHERMES. CHERMES. Generic Character. Rostrum pectorale. Antenna thorace lonoiores. Ala quatuor, deflexae. Thorax gibbus. Pedes saltatorii. Snout pectoral. Antenna longer than thorax. Wings four, deflex. Thorax gibbose. Feet formed for walking. JL HE insects of the genus Chermes, like those of the genus Aphis, are found on the leaves, young shoots, and bark of various vegetables: they are, in general, of small size, and in their larva state are of a much more flattened form than when farther advanced, and exhibit merely the rudi- ments of the future wings: in this state also many of them appear coated, especially on the hind part of the body, with a flocculent or filamentous sub- stance, of a white colour, and of a clammy or tenacious nature, which exsudes from the pores of the animal, and is gradually protruded into the form above-mentioned. Chermis Alni is found on the leaves and shoots of the Alder. Its larva is entirely covered, about the hinder part, by thickly fasciculated heaps of viscid down or cotton, which, if purposely rubbed off, are quickly reproduced by the animal, which Therm Es, 69 Fyii //IffO. lauiej' view \; Bujci macniJie.■ mac^fwic/ iS,>.yOafiI^cndcn.J'tJ'X^/»-J h<- <7.SW:./f^.>%r^ ■<''yM 6i c oC'rus« 1.2- ma/s of C CavU nod. stzey. Z-S . femalj.' o/' d/ ". 6 r, . ft'/niife' t/^ J//^iAiA.^ j-cu/f. iS^^^.P.-ir, /.nn'^yyr, .ri>S/,.>-f»fd by G.Kf»r.i-/,v.FU:*Street: coccus. igi But of all the Insects of this genus by far the most important is the Coccus Cacti or Cochineel Coccus, so celebrated for the beauty of the colour which it yields when properly prepared. This species is a native of South- America, and is pecu- liarly cultivated in the country of Mexico, where it feeds on the plants called Cactus cochenillifer, and Cactus Opuntia. The female or officinal Cochineel insect, in its full-grown pregnant or torpid state, swells or grows to such a size, in proportion to that of its first or creeping state, that the legs, antennae, and proboscis are so small with respect to the rest of the animal as hardly to be discovered except by a good eye, or by the assistance of a glass; so that on a general view it bears as great a resemblance to a seed or berry as to an animal. This was the cause of that diifer- ence in opinion which long subsisted between seve- ral authors; some maintaining that Cochineel was a berry; while others contended that it was an in- sect. We must also here advert to another error; viz. that tlie Cochineel was a species of Coccinella or Lady-Bird. This seems to have taken its rise from specimens of the Coccinella Cacti of Linnaeus being sometimes accidentally intermixed with the Cocliineel in gathering and drying. When the female Cochineel-Insect is arrived at its full size, it fixes itself to the surface of the leaf, and envelops itself in a white cottony matter, which it is supposed to spin or draw tiirough its proboscis in a continued double filament, it being observed that two filaments are frequently seen 192 coccus. proceeding from the tip of the proboscis in the full-grown insect. The Male is a small and rather slender dipterous fly, about the size of a flea, with jointed antennae and large white wings in proportion to the body, which is of a red colour, with two long filaments proceeding from the tail. It is an active and lively animal, and is dispersed in small numbers among the females, in the proportion, according to Mr. Ellis, in the Philosophical Transactions, of about one male to a hundred and fifty, or even two hundred females. When the female insect has discharged all its eggs, it becomes a mere husk, and dies; so that great care is taken to kill the insects before that time, to prevent the young from escaping, and thus disappointing the pro- prietor of the beautiful colour. The insects when picked or brushed off the plants, are said to be first killed either by the fumes of heated vinegar, ar by smoke, and then dried, in which state they are imported into Europe ; and it is said that the Spanish Government is annually more enriched by the profit of the Cochineel trade than by the produce of all its gold-mines. It may perhaps be almost unnecessary to add, that, exclusive of the general or large scale in which Cochineel is used by the dyers, the fine colour so much esteemed in painting, and known by the name of Carmine, is no other than a pre- paration from the same substance, and is un- questionably the most beautiful of all the pictorial reds. It is also used, when properly mixed with (yt 1 " .§: 1 t< N ^ n |- C 5>- iS coccus. 193 hair-powder, powdered talc, &c. in that innocent cosmetic, so much used by the Ladies, and popu- larly known by the French term Rouge. Coccus Ilicis or Kermes, (the Kermes of the Materia Medica) is a species adhering, in its ad- vanced or pregnant state, to the shoots of the Quercus cocci/ eray (Ilex aculeata cocciglandifera. C. Bauh. pin.) under the form of smooth reddish- brown or black-sh powdery grains or balls of the size of small peas. The tree or shrub grows plen- tifully in many parts of France, Spain, Greece, and the islands of the Archipelago. The Cocci are found adhering in groupes of five, six, or more together, or pretty near each other. They are gathered for the purposes of commerce by the country people. Before the discovery of America the Coccus Ilicis or Kermes, as it was then termed, was the most valuable substance for dying scarlet, and was collected in great quantity for that purpose. According to the mildness or severity of the winter the harvest of the Kermes is said to be more or less plentiful; and it is no very uncommon thing to have two harvests in a year. Before dying, the berries are steeped in vinegar, to prevent the ex- clusion of the young animals by thus killing the parents. They are then spread or thrown on linen, and as long as they continue moist are turned twice or thrice a day, to prevent their heating, and are afterwards put up for sale. Woolen cloth dyed with Kermes was called V. VI. p. I. 13 J94 coccus. scarlet in grain; tlie animal having been popularly considered as a grain: the colour is a durable, deep red, called ox-blood colour, much inferior to the brilliancy of Cochineel scarlet, but far more lasting, and less liable to stain. Mons^ Hellot, in his Art de tie?2dre, observes that the figured cloths to be seen in the old tapestries of Brussels and the other manufactures of Flanders, which have scarcely lost any thing of their liveliness by stand- ing for two hundred years, were all dyed with this ingredient. Coccus Polqnicus, This may be considered as the Cochineel of the North ; being found only in cold climates. It is sometimes collected for the use of dyers, but is greatly inferior as a colour to the American Cochineel. It is chiefly found on the roots of the plant called Scleranthus per- ennis, and is principally produced in Poland. Coccus cataphractus. This very singular species was described several years ago in the fifth volume of the Naturalist's Miscellany, from a specimen communicated by the ingenious Mr. Dickson, Gardener to the British Museum, and well known for his assiduous researches into that difficult branch of Botany the class Cryptogamia. Mr. Dickson, soon after its discovery, requested me to examine its characters, and endeavour to ascertain its genus. I accordingly made a microscopic sur- vey of the animal, and could not but conclude it to be a species of Coccus. /;.:The natural size of the insect, (of which the coccus. 195 female alone appears at present to be known,) is that of the Coccinella tigrina, or small yellow- spotted Lad} -Bird, and at first view has an appearance so little allied to the generality of the Cocci as to make it doubtiiil whether it really belongs to that tribe of insects. The whole animal, (except the eyes, legs, antennae, and ros- trum,) being coated, in the most curious manner, in a complete suit of milk-white armour, as if cased in ivory. The divisions or annuli of the back are eight in number, of which the three su- perior ones are each furnished with a small scu- tellum or appendicular piece, which is wanting in the others. The sides are surrounded by project- ing laminae, somewhat in the manner of tortoises or millepedes: the lower surface is composed of angular pieces, disposed nearly as in the former of the above-mentioned animals: the eyes, which are situated just below or on the under side of the antennae, are bright, and somewhat elevated, not unlike those of a lobster: the colour of the projecting parts, viz. the legs, eyes, antennae, and rostrum, is a fine bright ferruginous or reddish brown. On the lower part of the abdomen the armour, in the figure engraved on the annexed plate, is represented broken off, displaying the "wrinkles of the skin, &c. on that part, as well as the remarkable contraction which takes place in consequence of the insect's having deposited part of its ova, many of which I perceived still remain- ing, on breaking this part of the shield; these eggs J 9^ coccus. were small in proportion to the animal, and of a brown colour. It is from the singular manner in which this insect is coated that 1 have given it the title of Coccus cataphractus or mailed Coccus, It is found among sphagnum and other mosses in boggy and turfy ground, and is most frequent in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England, par- ticularly in some parts of Cumberland. If it really belongs to the genus Coccus, it is much to be wished that by a diligent search the male may at length be discovered, in order that the history of so curious an insect may be rendered complete. I must not omit to add that I suspect this in- sect to have been slightly described and rudely figured (apparently from a bad specimen) in the seventh volume of the works of Degeer, who, like myself, supposes it to be a species of Coccus. His specimen seems to have been considerably smaller than the British ones. A very small species of this genus is often seen, in its fixed or torpid state, on the surface of dif- ferent kinds of Apples, and particularly on the golden pippin. It is not more than the tenth of an inch in length, and is of a long oval shape, " gradually decreasing to a point at one end. It contains thirty or forty oval white eggs enveloped in a silky matter. This species seems to be very nearly allied to one described by the ingenious Mr. Baker, in his work entitled "^ Employment for the Microscope^ p. 371. Mr. Baker describes the twigs of an Ash as thickly covered on one side . li coccus. 197 with very numerous small spots of the size of very small pins heads, and of nearly the same colour with the bark itself: each when opened was found to contain thirty or forty eggs. On placing this twig in the ground, in a favourable situation, where the sun shone freely on it, after a certain time prodigious swarms of extremely mi- nute Cocci proceeded from the eggs contained in the respective tubercles. They were of a beautiful scarlet colour, and measured about the hundred and fourteenth part of an inch in length. Their general appearance was very much that of an Oniscus or Millepede, but vvith six legs, two short bristles at the tail, and antennas of a strong ap- pearance, resembling a pair of forceps, being each curved inwards and pointed. If the male of this animal, which even in its full-grown or fixed state, is not more than the twentieth of an inch in length, bears the usual proportional difference of size to the female with the rest of the genus, it must surely be one of the most minute of all winged insects*. * Coccus conchiformis of Gmelin's Syst. Nat. (Reaumur t. 5. f. 7.) seems to be nearly allied to the former of the above- described minute species. THRIPS. THRIPS. Generic Character. Rostrum obscurum. Antennce longitudine tho- racis. Corpus lineare. Abdomen sursum reflexile. Al/ r/wrjn/nrr/ idoS Oct 1 Iriidon fiih/i/hiii />>■ C /.'nirslri- fUr/ Srrrrl THRIPS: 1^ Tlirips physapiis oi Linnaeus, which is a very small, slender insect, of a black colour, very frequently seen during the spring and summer on various flowers, more especially on what are termed the compound flowers, as Dandelion, &c. It wanders about the petals of the flower, descending to the bottom of the florets, occasionally emerging at in- tervals, and often skipping from place to place, iri performing which action it is observed suddenly to turn back its alxiomen, so as nearly to touch th6 thorax with its tip. The wings are of a semi- transparent white, narrow, and when properly magnified, are observed to be edged and tipped with hairs growing gradually longer as they ap- proach the tips, where they are of considerable length: the lower wings are rather shorter than the upper, beneath which they are, in general, almost concealed : the antennae consist of six joints, and the feet are tipped with an expansile and apparently vesicular process, enabling the little animal to adhere at pleasure with the greater security to any particular substance. All these particulars require a microscope for their investi- gation, the whole insect not exceeding the tenth of an inch in length. The larva in a great degree resembles the complete insect, but is destitute of wings: when very young it is white, and after- wards of a yellowish or reddish colour, and like the complete insect, is seen wandering about the petals of flowers. The Thrips physapus has been supposed to do much injury to wheat, rye, &c. by causing the 20O THRIPS.. young flowers to decay; thus preventing the growth of the embryo grain. This opinion how- ever has by some been considered as erroneous, who have contended that the Thrips does not attach itself to such of the CereaHa as are in a perfectly heaUhy state, but rather to such as are diseased by having the germina covered with the dust of a very minute fungus, often growing on wheat, &c. and belonging to the genus ^cidium or Lycoperdon, and which makes its appearance in the form of a flattish, smooth, irregular exsu- dation of a yellow colour on various parts of the plant*. The ingenious Air. Kirby however seems convinced that the Thrips is in reality an insect highly injurious to corn, by deriving its nourish- ment from the embryo grains. * See much on this subject in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, vols. 3, 4, and 5. INS E C T S. ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. X HIS splendid Order of Insects furnishes the most conspicuous example of the surprising dif- ference, in appearance between the larva or first state of the same animal and its complete or per- fect state, in which it is capable of breeding. The Lepidopterous Insects are divided into three genera, viz. Pap'dio, SphinXj and Phalcenay or Butterfly, Sphinx, and Moth. PAPILIO. BUTTERFLY. Generic Character. Antcnnce apicein versus crassiores, saepius clavato- capitatse. jlla (sedentis) erectse sur- sumque conniventes, (vo- latu diurno.) Antenna thickening towards the extremity, commonly terminating in a knob or clavated tip. Wings (when sitting) erect and meeting upwards : (flight diurnal.) X HE prodigious number of species in this genusf inakes it absolutely necessary to divide the whole into sections or sets, instituted from the habit or general appearance, and, in some degree, from tlie distribution of the colour on the wings. This di- vision of the genus is conducted by Linnaeus in a peculiarly elegant and instructive manner, being an attempt to combine, in some degree, natural and civil history, by attaching the memory of some illustrious ancient name to an insect of such or such a particular cast. The first Linnaean division consists of the Equi- tes, distinguished by the shape of their upper wings, which are longer, if measured from their hinder angle to their anterior extremity, tham V.ov . Th . d.j BUTTERFLY. 203 from the same point to the base. Some of this division have fiHform or sharpened antennje*, in which particular they resemble Moths, but may generally be very clearly distinguished by their habit or general shape. The Equites are either Troes or Trojans, distinguished by having red or blood-coloured spots or patches on each side their breasts, or Achivi, Greeks, without red marks on the breast, of gayer colours in general than the former, and often having an eye-shaped spot at the inner corner of the lower wings. The next division consists of the Heliconii. These are distinguished by the narrowness of their wings, which are also, in general, of a more trans- parent appearance than in the other divisions j their upper wings are also generally much more oblong than the lower, which are short in propor- tion. The third division consists of the Danai, (from the sons and daughters of Danaus.) They are divided into Danai Camlidi, or those in which the ground-colour of tlie wings is generally white, and the Danai Fe.stivi, in which the ground-colour is never white, and in which a greater variety of colour occurs than in the Candidi. The wings of the Danai are of a somevvhat rounder shape than those of the Heliconii, or less stretched out. The fourth section consists of the Nyinphales, * Tliis part of the generic character is to be received with, some limitation, since in the tribe Equites tlie 'antennae are slender at tlie tip itself, though thickened a little before that part. 204 BUTTERFLY. and is distinguished by the edges of the wingii being scolloped or indented : it is subdivided into the Nymphales gemmati, in which eye-shaped spots are seen either on all the wings, or on the upper or lower pair only, and into the Nymphales phale- rati, in which no ocellated spots are visible on the wings, but, in general, a great variety of colours. The fifth section contains the Plebeii. These are, in general, smaller than the preceding kinds of Butterflies, and are subdivided into Plebeii urbicolce, or those in which the wings are marked by semi- transparent spots, and Plebeii rurales, in which the spots or patches have no transparency. The above distribution of the genUs Papilio is not entirely accurate, and must therefore be re- ceived with a proper degree of allowance for a task so seemingly trifling, yet so really difficult. It has been observed by some critics that the blood-coloured spots, mentioned by Linnaeus as characteristic of the Trojans, are not always founds and that the interior angle of the wings in the Achivi is not always marked with an eye-shaped spot : that the surest method therefore is, to con- sider such of the Equites as are of dark or mourn- ing colours as belonging to the Troes, and those of gayer or livelier ones to the Achivi. It is added, that the under wings in some of the Heliconii are. slightly indented, and might perhaps as well have been referred to the Nymphales phalerati ; that the under Avings of the Danai Jestivi are also often indented; and lastly, that the family of the Plebeii is particularly inaccurate, many of those insects. BUTTERFLY. 205 liaving characters which would more properly entitle them to a place in some of the other di- visions. The larvas of Butterflies are universally and em- phatically known by the name of Caterpillars, and are extremely various in their forms and colours, some being smooth, others beset with either simple or ramified spines, &c. and some, especially those belonging to the division Equites, are observed to protrude from their front, when disturbed, a pair of short tentacula or feelers, some- what analogous to those of a snail. A Caterpillar, when grown to its full size, retires to some convenient spot, and securing itself pro- perly by a small quantity of silken iilaments, either suspends itself by the tail, hanging with its head downwards, or else in an upright position, with the body fastened round the middle by a proper number of filaments. It then casts ofi' the cater- pillar skin, and commences chrysalis, in which state it continues till the inclosed Butterfly is ready for birth, which, liberating itself from the skin of the chrysalis, remains till its wings, which are at fust very short, weak, and covered with moisture, are fully extended: this happens in the space of about a quarter of an hour, when the ani- mal suddenly quits the state of inactivity to which it had been so long confined, and becomes at plea- sure an inhabitant of air. . The papilionaceous insects in general, soon after their enlargement from the chrysalis, and commonly during their first flight, discharge some 206 BUTTERFLY. drops of a red-coloured fluid, more or less intense in different species. This circumstance, exclusive of its analogy to the same process of Nature in other animals, is peculiarly worthy of attention from the explanation which it affords of a pheno- menon sometimes considered, both in ancient and modern times, in the light of a prodigy; viz. the descent of red drops from the air; which has been called a shower of blood: an event recorded by several writers, and particularly by Ovid, among the prodigies which took place after the death of the G:reat dictator. O' " Saepe faces visae mediis ardere sub astris, Saepe inter nimbos guttae cecidere cruentae." With threatening signs the lowering skies were fiU'd, And sanguine drops from murky clouds distili'd. This highly rational elucidation of a pheno- menon at first view so inexplicable, seems to have been first given by the celebrated Peiresc, who with his own eyes observed the vestiges of an ap-- pearance of this kind in France in the year l608, and was clearly convinced of its real origin, viz. the discharge above-mentio»ed from a species of Butterfly, (perhaps the P. urticas, or P. poly- chloros,) which happened during that season to be uncommonly plentiful in the particular district where the phcenomenon was observed. The same idea was also entertained by Svvammerdam, though he does not appear to have verified it from his own observation. 6:5 BUTTERFLY. 20? I shall now proceed to give a few examples of species belonging to each division of the genus Papilio. Among the Equites Troes the Papilio Priamus should take the lead, not only from the correspond- ing dignity of the name, but from the exquisite appearance of the animal itself, which Linnaeus considered as the most beautiful of the whole papilionaceous tribe. " Papilionum omnium prin- ceps, longe angustissimus, totus holosericus, ut dubitem pulchrius quidquam, a Natura in insectis productum." This admirable species measures more than six inches from wings end to wings end: the upper wings are velvet black, with a broad band of the most beautiful grass-green and of a satiny lustre drawn from the shoulder to the tip, and another on the lower' part of the wing, following the shape of that part, and of a somewhat undulating appear- ance as it approaches the tip: the lower wings are of the same green colour, edged with velvet-black, and marked by four spots of that colour, while at the upper part of each, or at the part where the upper-wings lap over, is a squarish orange-coloured spot: the thorax is black with sprinklings of lucid green in the middle, and the abdomen is of ai bright yellow or gold-colour. On the under side of the animal the distribution of colours is some- what different, the green being disposed in central patches on the upper wings, and the lower being marked by more numerous black as well as orange «pots. The red or bloody spots on each side the 208 BUTTERFLY. thorax are not always to be seen on this the Trojan Monarch. The Papiho Priamus is a very rare insect, and is a native of the island of Amboyna. P. Antetior is a very large species, measuring six inches and a half in extent of wings : its colour is black, with numerous cream-coloured spots and patches, and the under-wings, which are tailed or furnished with a pair of lengthened processes in the middle, are edged with a row of red crescent- shaped spots. It is said to be a native of India. P. Hector is very happily named, being of a deep or velvet black colour, with the lower wing.? marked by numerous blood-red spots: the thorax is red on each side, and the upper wings have a pair of obscure, broken, whitish, transverse clouds or bars. It is a native of the East Indies. P. Sarpedon is a highly elegant species: the wings are of a lengthened shape, and the lower pair are stretched downwards into a pointed pro- cess: the whole animal is black, with a broad, interrupted pea-green stripe or band passing through all the wings: on the lower part is also a border of crescent-shaped green spots. Among the Equites Achivi the P. Menelaus may be considered as one of the most splendidly beautiful of the Butterfly tribe. Its size is large, measuring, when expanded, about six inches; and its colour is the most brilliant silver-blue that ima- gination can conceive, changing, according to the variation of the light, into a deeper blue, and in some hghts to a greenish cast: on the under side it is entirely brown, with numerous deeper and r>r^ BUTTERFLY. 20^ lighter undulations, and three large ocellated spots on each wing. It is a native of South-America,' and proceeds, according to Madam Merian, who has figured it in her work on the Surinam Insects, from a large yellow caterpillar, beset with numer- ous, upright, sharp, black spines. It changes into an angular chrysalis, of a brown colour, and di- stinguished by having the proboscis projecting in a semicircular manner over the breast: from this chrysalis, in about fourteen days, proceeds the complete insect. The P. Machaon is an insect of great beauty, and may be considered as the only British species of Papilio belonging to the tribe of Eqidtes*. It is commonly known among the English collect- ors by the title of the Swallow-Tailed Butterfly, and is of a beautiful yellow, with black spots or patches along the upper edge of the superior wings: all the wings are bordered with a deep edging of black, decorated by a double row of crescent-shaped spots, of which the upper row is blue, and the lower yellow: the under wings are tailed, and are marked at the inner angle or tip with a round red spot bordered with blue and black. The caterpillar of this species feeds princi- pally on fennel and other umbelliferous plants, and is sometimes found on rue. It is of a green colour, encircled with numerous black bands spotted with red, and is furnished on the top of * Unless we admit the Papilio Podalirius to be a British species also . V. VI. p. I. 14 210 BUTTERFLY. the head with a pair of short tentacula of a red colour, which it occasionally protrudes from that part. In the month of July it changes into a yellowish-grey angular chrysalis, affixed to some convenient part of the plant, or other neighbour- ing substance, and from this chrysalis in the month of August proceeds the complete insect. It some- times happens that two broods of this butterfly are produced in the same summer, viz. the first in May, having lain all winter in the chrysalis state, and the second in August, from the chrysalides of July. Of the division called Heliconii the beautiful insect the Papilio Apollo is an example. It is a native of many parts of Europe, but has not yet been observed in our own country, and is some- what larger than the common great cabbage- butterfly; of a white colour, with a slight semi- transparency towards the tips of the wings, which are decorated with velvet-black spots, and on each of the lower wings are two most beautiful ocel- lated spots consisting of a carmine-coloured circle with a white centre and black exterior border. The caterpillar is black, with small red spots, and a pair of short retractile tentacula in front: it feeds on Orpine and some other succulent plants, and changes into a brown chrysalis, covered with a kind of glaucous or violet-coloured powder. P. Piera has semitransparent wings, with the lower pair marked by two ocellated black spots with a yellow ring and centre. It is a native of South- America. PAlPinLUJ. ^7 IlKI.JCOXII ■*0'^\) PicJ'a J'oh/lVffUlM jPAFlJLlO , 68 T. /.eiti/j' BUTTERFLY. 211 P. Crat(egi or the Hawthorn Butterfly is nearly of the size of the common cabbage butterfly, and is of a white colour, witli black fibres on the wings, and is seen in the months of June and July. Of the longer winged Heliconii the P. Ricini is a good example: it is black, with two yellowish, obliquely-transverse bands on the upper wings, while the lower are deeply bordered with black. It is a iiative of South- America. Of the division entitled Danai Candidi the com- mon large white Butterfly, or P. Brassicce is a familiar example: this insect is too well known to require particular description, and it may be only necessary to remind the reader that it proceeds from a yellowish caterpillar freckled with blueish and black spots, and which changes during the autumn into a yellowish grey chrysalis, aflixed in a perpendicular direction to some wall, tree, or other object, some filaments being drawn across the thorax in order the more conveniently to secure its position. The fly appears in May and June, and is seen through all the summer. The term Candidi in this division, being applied only in a general sense, it of course contains some species of a diflerent colour : among these one of the most elegant is the P. Rhamni or Buckthorn Butterfly, of a bright sulphur-colour, with sharp- cornered wings marked by a small orange spot in the middle of each. It is not uncommon during spring and autumn. P. Hyale or the Fern Butterfly is also in this 2!1^ BUTTERFLY. division, and is a beautiful species with orange- yellow wings deeply bordered with black. Of the Danai Festivi the P. Midamiis may serve as an example; an elegant Asiatic species, of a black colour, with a varying blue lustre to- wards the tips of the upper wings, which are mark- ed by many white spots, while the lower pair are streaked longitudinally with numerous white lines, and edged with a row of white specks. P. Sophorce is also of this tribe: it is of a fine brown colour, with a bright orange-ferruginous bar across the upper wings, and a more obscure one of similar colour round the lower part of the Tinder wings: it is a native of South- America, and according to Madam Merian, proceeds from a large rufous caterpillar marked above by narrow longitudinal white stripes. Among the Nymphales Gemmati iew can ex- ceed in elegance the P. lo or Peacock Butter- fly, a species by no means uncommon in our own country: the ground-colour of this insect is orange-brown, with black bars separated by yellow intermediate spaces on the upper edge of the su- perior wings, while at the tip of each is a most beautiful large eye-shaped spot, formed by a com- bination of black, brown, and blue, with the addi- tion of whitish specks : on each of the lower wings is a still larger eye-shaped spot, consisting of a black central patch, varied with blue, and sur- rounded by a zone of pale brown, which is itself deeply bordered with black: all the wings are scolloped or denticulated. The caterpillar is PAP31L10 o ^\0 OraXceffv Danai c'a>ji>idi 2dc>^, Oc-dj jTu^l/lr/ni/ bi t^Kar.,-icr.r/j-e/\fncet . 7^ IP Ar 11 1. 11 o . lsYlvEPn.\LES PHAJ.EllATI. Atzdanta' Taphuv Juf^tijui' J{.i}nnaax»- J-Jtiif:. Nymphat.:es gemmati iao;,.Oot:iLcrtdc,i fui,li,-lu^ tj- u.&s^rM^r.FUet So-(M>. BUTTERFLY. 213 black, with numerous white spots, and black ramified spines: it feeds principally on the Nettle, changing to chrysalis in July, and the fly appear- ing in August. P. Jurtina is a species equally common, though far less beautiful. It is chiefly observed in mea- dows, and is of a brown colour, the upper wings having a much brighter or orange-ferruginous bar towards the tips, with a small, black, eye-shaped spot with a white centre : on the opposite or under side of the insect the same distribution of colours takes place. Of the Nymphales Phalerati ievi can surpass the common English species called P. Atalanta or the Admirable Butterfly: it is of the most intense velvet-black colour, with a rich carmine-coloured bar across the upper wings, which are spotted towards the tips with white ^ while the lower wings are black, with a deep border of carmine-colour marked by a row of small black spots : the under surface of the wings also presents a most beautiful mixture of colours: the caterpillar is brown and spiny, feeds on Nettles, and changes into a chry- salis in July, the Fly appearing in August. P. Paphia is a highly elegant insect, of a fine orange-chesnut colour above, with numerous black spots and bars: beneath greenish, with narrow silvery undulations on the lower wings and black spots on the upper. It proceeds from a yellowish brown spiny caterpillar, living principally on nettles. This insect is generally found in the neighbourhood of woods. 214 BUTTERFLY. Of the last division, termed Plebeii, may be ad- duced as an example a small English Butterfly called P. MalvcBi of a blackish or brown colour, with numerous whitish and semitransparent spots. It belongs to the Plebeii Urbicolce. The P. Betulce is also seen in woods, and is a small species, of a blackish-brown colour, with a broad orange bar on the upper wings, the lower pair being slightly produced into two orange- coloured tails or processes towards the inner corner, This species belongs to the Plebeii Ru- rales. ' To this latter division also belongs a very beauti- ful exotic species, a native of India, and of a most exquisite lucid blue colour, edged with black, and farther ornamented by having each of the lower wings tipped with two narrow black tail-shaped processes. It is the P. Marsyas of Linnaeus, Papuio. 7' Pl.T.BEU Ri:KAI,JiS. Mursvus Jfalrw Jfcrw / Jr.Oru9ll/l jrOdip. PI-I;BEII URBlCOXit idoJ. OetTifXcndirn.,Tui>tishtd h- It. Kmvinjleer Street. SPHINX. SPHINX. Generic Character, Antenna medio crassiores, seu utraque cxtremitate attenuatae, subprisma- ticae. Alte deflexce (volatu gravi- ore vespertine seu matu- tino.) Antenna thickest in the middle, subprismatic, and attenuated at each ex- tremity. JVings deflected. (Flight strong, and commonly in the evening or morning.) Jl HE Insects of this genus are sometimes called by the title of Hawk-Moths, and have in general a large thorax and thick body, commonly taper- ing towards the extremity. The flight of the larger kinds is chiefly confined to the evening or early morning hours, few species appearing on the wing in the middle of the day. The name Sphinx is applied to the genus on account of the posture assumed by the larvas of several of the larger species, which are often seen in an attitude much resembling that of the Egyptian Sphinx, viz. with the fore-parts elevated, and the rest of the body applied flat to the surface. One of the most elegant insects of this genus is the Sphinx Ligustri or Privet Hawk-Moth. It is a large insect, measuring nearly four inches and a 2-10 SPHINX. half from wings end to wings end: the upper wnigs are of a brown colour, most elegantly varied or shaded with deeper and lighter streaks and patches; the under wings and body are of a fine rose-colour, barred with transverse black stripes. The caterpillar, which is very large, is smooth* and of a fine green, with seven oblique purple and white stripes along each side: at the extremity of the body, or top of the last joint, is a horn or process pointing backwards. This beautiful cater- pillar IS often found in the months of July and August feeding on the Privet, the Lilac, the Pop- lar, and some other trees, and generally changes to a chrysalis in August or September, retiring for that purpose to a considerable depth beneath the surface of the ground, and, after casting its skm, continuing during the whole winter in a dormant state, the Sphinx emerging from it in the succeeding June. Sphin.v Ocdlata is perhaps still more beautiful: it is a rather smaller insect than the preceding, and has the upper wings and body brown, the former finely clouded with different shades, while the lower wings are of a bright rose-colour, each marked with a large ocellated black spot with a blue interior circle and a black centre. This in- sect proceeds from a green caterpillar of a rough or shagreen-like surface, marked on each side by seven oblique yellowish-white streaks, and fur. nished, like the preceding, with a horn at the tail. It is principally found on the Willow; retires under ground, in order to undergo its change ^ I-* n I ^ A Sph.oce/lnta. Af.l/nintk^ ^cuJf* iSo^.OcCl London .I'uSlur/i^ 6y &^eAju\fUiJ^le^fSrrfec. Sraij^x, / k I . V. Sr^J^lh, .teu/^ . S. I'o/iyoli'u/i iScS. Ou O J'id>ii^-?i£ti s,.iOrec,r,r».{.„ r„//,>f,^.i/,,. a?i,^,.r/,,J-y,, SPHINX. ft 17 into the chrysalis state, in the month of August or September, and in the following June appears the complete insect. But the largest and most remarkable, if not the most beautiful European insect of this genus, is the Sphhhv Atropos of Linnaeus, which very con- siderably exceeds in size both the species already mentioned. The upper wings are of a fine dark grey colour, with a few slight variegations of dull orange and white: the under wings are of a bright orange-colour, maiked by a pair of transverse black bands: the body is also orange-coloured, with the sides marked by black bars, while along the top of the back, from the thorax to the tail, runs a broad blue-grey stripe: on the top of the thorax is a very large patch of a most singular appearance, exactly representing the usual figure of a skull or death's head, and is of a pale grey, varied with dull ochre-colour and black. When in the least disturbed or irritated, this insect emits a stridulous sound, something like the squeaking of a bat or mouse, and from this circumstance, as well as from the mark above-mentioned on the thorax, is held in much dread by the vulgar in several parts of Europe, its appearance being re- garded as a kind of ill omen, or harbinger of ap- proaching fate. We are informed by the cele- brated Reaumur that the members of a female Convent in France were thrown into great con- sternation at the appearance of one of these in- sects, w hich happened to fly In during the evening at one of the windows of the dormitory. The Sl8 SPHINX. caterpillar from which this curious Sphinx pro- ceeds is in the highest degree beautiful, and far surpasses in size every other European insect of the kind, measuring sometimes near five inches in length, and being of a very considerable thick- ness: its colour is a bright yellow, the sides mark- ed by a row of seven most elegant broad stripes or bands, of a mixed violet and sky-blue colour: the tops of these bands meet on the back in so many angles, and are varied on that part with jet-black specks: on the last joint of the body is a horn or process, not in an erect position, as in the preceding kinds, but hanging or curving over the joint in the manner of a tail, having a rough or rauricated surface and a yellow colour. This caterpillar is principally found on the potatoe and the jessamine, those plants being its favorite food. It usually changes into a chrysalis in the month of September, retiring for that purpose pretty deep under the surface of the earth; the complete insect emerging in the following June or July; but some individuals are observed to change into chrysalis in July or August; and these produce the complete insect in November; so that there appear to be two broods or annual races. The Sphinx Atropos is generally considered as a very rare insect, and as the caterpillar feeds chiefly by night, concealing itself during the day under leaves, &c. it is not often detected: yet, from some singular circumstances favourable to its breed, there are some seasons in which it is even plentiful, as in the autumn of the present year ►Spm:^x S.J'fr/V. SPHINX. 219 1804, in which the caterpillar was so common in some counties as to be very prejudicial to the potatoe-plants, particularly in some parts of Corn- wall, Surry, &c. The alteration of form which the whole of the papilionaceous tribe undergo, and in a particular manner the changes above-described of the genus Sphinx, afford a subject of the most pleasing contemplation to the mind of the naturalist, and though a deeply philosophical survey demonstrates that there is no real or absolute change produced in the identity of the creature itself, or that it is in reality no other than the gradual and progres- sive evolution of parts before concealed, and which Jay masqued under the form of an insect of a widely different appearance, yet it is justlj'^ viewed with the highest admiration, and even generally acknowledged as in the most lively manner typical of the last eventful change. If any regard is to be paid to a similarity of names, it should seem that the ancients were suf- iiciently struck with the transformations of the Butterfly, and its revival from a seeming tempo- rary death, as to have considered it as an emblem of the soulj the Greek word ^vxyi signifying both the soul and a butterfly. This is also confirmed by their allegorical sculptures, in which the butter- fly occurs as an emblem of immortality. Modern naturalists, impressed with the same idea, and laudably solicitous to apply it as an illustration of the awful mystery revealed in the sacred writings, have drawn their allusions to it 220 SPHINX. from the dormant condition of the papilionaceous insects during tiieir state of chrysaHs, and their resuscitation from it; but they have, in general, unfortunately chosen a species the least proper for the purpose j viz. the Silkworm, an animal ■which neither undergoes its changes under the surface of the earth, nor, when emerged from its tomb, is it an insect of any remarkable beauty; but the larva or caterpillar of the Sphinx, when satiate of the food allotted to it during that state, retires to a very considerable depth beneath the surface of the ground, where it divests itself of all appearance of its former state, and continues buried during several months; then rises to the surface, and bursting from the confinement of its tomb, commences a being of powers so com- paratively exalted, and of beauty so superior as not to be beheld without the highest admiration. Even the animated illustration taken from the vegetable w^orld, so justly admired, as best calcu- lated for general apprehension, must yield in the force of its similitude to that drawn from the in- sect's life, since Nature exhibits few phenomena that can equal so wonderful a transformation. I must here request the reader's permission to repeat on this subject some lines long ago intro- duced into the pages of the Naturalist's Mis- cellany. The helpless crawling caterpillar trace From the first period of his reptile race. Cloth' d in dishonour, on the leafy spray Unseen he wears his silent hours away. SPHINX. 221 Till satiate grown of all that life supplies. Self-taught the voluntary martyr dies. Deep under earth his darkling course he bends. And to the tomb, a willing guest, descends. There, long secluded in his lonely cell. Forgets the sun, and bids the world farewel. O'er tlie wide waste the wintry tempests reign. And driving snows usurp the frozen plain. In vain the tempest beats, the whirlwind blows; No storms can violate his grave's repose. But when revolving months have won their way. When smile the woods, and when the zephyrs play. When laughs tlie vivid world in summer's bloom. He bursts and flies triumphant from the tomb. And, while his new-born beauties he displays. With conscious joy his alter'd form surveys. Mark, while he moves amid the sunny beam. O'er his soft wings the vaiying lustre gleam. Launch'd into air, on purple plumes he soars. Gay Nature's face witli wanton glance explores; Proud of his various beauties wings his way. And spoils the fairest flowers, himself more fair tlxan they! And deems weak Man the future promise vain. When worms can die, and glorious rise again? G. S. I must not conclude the surve}^ of the genus Sphinx without observing that it contains some species of a smaller size and of a somewhat differ- ent habit from the kinds above described. Amonsr these is the beautiful Sph'uhv FilUpendulx or Drop- wort Sphinx, common in meadows towards the decline of summer, and which is distinguished by having the upper wings of an oblong-oval shape and of a dark shining green colour, with blood- red spots, and the lower wings red with a dark green edging: the caterpillar is of a pale yellow. 2'22 SPHINX. with rows of squarish black spots, and is often seen feeding on various meadow plants and grasses: it does not undergo its change under ground, but encloses itself in an oval shining yellow web of silk, attached to the stem of some grass, &c. In this it changes into a chrysalis, out of which in about the space of three weeks emerges the com- plete insect. Others of the smaller Sphinges are remarkable for having the wings in a considerable degree transparent : of this kind is the Sphini' apiformis, which is of an aspect at first sight more resem- bling that of a wasp or hornet than of a Sphinx, the wings being transparent with merely a slight edging of brown, and the thorax and abdomen varied with black and yellow. The caterpillar inhabits the hollows of Poplar, Sallow, Willow, and Lime trees, feeding on the substance of the bark; changing to a chrysalis in April, and the Fly appearing in the month of June. Sphinx crabroniformis is so much like the former as scarcely to be distinguished from it, and in- habits the hollows of the Sallow and other Willows, feeding on the wood: it changes to a chrysalis in May, and the Fly appears in July, PHAI..ENA. MOTH. Generic Character. Antejina setaceae, a basi ad apicem sensim attenuatae. ylliC (sedentis) ssepius de- flexffi, (volatu nocturno.) Antennte setaceous, gradu- ally lessening from base to tip. IVings (when sitting) gene- rally defiex, (flight noc- turnal.^ X HIS genus like that of Papilio, containing a vast number of species, is divided into assort- ments, according to the different habits of the animals. These assortments are as follows, viz. Attaci, or those in which the wings, when at rest, are spred out horizontally. Bombyces, in which the wings are incumbent, and the antennie pectinated. NoctucCy with incumbent wings and setaceous antennae. Gcometroiy with wings horizontally spread out, nearly as in the Attaci. TortrlceSy with very obtuse wings, curved on the exterior margin. Pyralides, with wings converging into a deltoid and slightly furcated figure. 224 MOTH. Tinece, with wings convoluted into a cylinder. AlucitoSy with wings divided into distinct plumes. These distributions, like those of the genus Pa- pilio, are not strictly accurate, and must therefore be regarded with a proper degree of allowance. In the first division or Attaci ranks the most splendid, and largest of all the Phalnsnae yet known, viz. the Phalcena Atlas, an insect so large that the extent of its wings measures not less than eight inches and a half: the ground-colour is a very fine deep orange-brown, and in the middle of each wing is a large subtriangular transparent spot or patch, resembling the appearance of a piece of Muscovy talc : each of these transparent parts is succeeded by a black border, and across all the wings run lighter and darker bars, exhibit- ing a very fme assortment of varying shades : the upper wings are slightly curved downwards at their tips in a falcated manner, and the lower wings are edged with a border of black spots on a pale buff-coloured ground : the antennae are widely pectinated with a quadruple series of fibres, exhibiting a highly elegant appearance. This in- sect is a native of both the Indies, and occasion- ally varies both in size and colours. Ph. Luna is an American species, of large size, and extremely beautiful: its colour is a most ele- gant pea-green, with a small yellovvish eye-shaped spot with a transparent centre in the middle of each- wing, and the lower wings are produced at the bottom into a long and broad tail or con-? 7^ tlL^ai^A- Th. Jufionia. iScj.CctTxLendciuT'ublis/udb}' &.^car,\-l0' . Flea Jtrett. MOTH. 225 tinuation: the ridge of the upper wings is broad and of a fine purple-brown colour: the head and thorax yellowish white, and the body milk-wiiile. Of the European species of this division l)eyond comparison the finest is the Phalcena Junonia (Pii. pavonia Lin.) a native of many parts of Germany, Italy, France, &c. but not yet observed in Eng- land. It measures about six inches in extent of wings, and is varied by a most beautiful assort- ment of the most sober colours, consisting of dif- ferent shades of deep and light grey, black, brown, &c. on the middle of each wing is ah eye-shaped spot, having the disk black, shaded on one side with blue; surrounded with red-brown, and the whole included by a circle of black: lastly, all the wings are bordered by a deep edging of very pale brown, with a whiter line immediately ad- joining to the darker part of the wing: the an- tennae are finely pectinated. The caterpillar, which feeds on the apple, pear, &c. is hardly less beautiful 4^han the insect itself: it is of a fine apple or yellowish-green colour with each seg- ment of the body ornamented by a row of upright prominences of a bright-blue colour, with black radiated edges, and surrounded by long black filaments, each of which terminates in a clavated tip. This larva, when ready for its change, en- velops itself in an oval web with a pointed ex- tremity, and transforms itself into a large short chrysalis, out of which afterwards eaiierges the moth. The P ha l(57M pavonia minor or smaller Peacock V. VI. p. I. 15 226 MOTH. Moth is a native of England, and is commonly called the Emperor Moth. In every respect ex- cept size it so greatly resembles the former, that Linnasus chose to consider it as a permanent variety only of the same species. The larva and pupa are also of the same appearance with those of the preceding, but on a much smaller scale. The Bombyces constitute a very numerous tribe, of which the Phalcena Caja or great tiger-moth may serve as an example. This species is one of the larger English moths, and is of a fine pale cream colour, with chocolate-brown bars and spots; the lower wings red, with black spots; the thorax chocolate-brown, with a red collar round the neck> and the bod}'^ red with black bars. The Cater- pillar is of a deep brown, with white specks; ex- tremely hairy, and feeds on various plants. It changes into chrysalis in June, and the Fly ap- pears in July. Ph. Vinula is remarkable for elegance of appear- ance without gaiety of colour, being .^ middle- sized white moth, variegated with numerous small black streaks and specks : the thorax and abdomen are extremely downy, and the body is marked by transverse black bars. The caterpillar of this moth is far more- brilliant in its appearance than the complete animal; it is of considerable size, mea- suring above two inches in length, and is of a most beautiful green colour, with the back of a dull purple, freckled with very numerous deeper streaks in a longitudinal direction: this purple part of the back is separated from the green on the sides by MOTH. 227 a pair of milk-white stripes, which commencing from the head, run upwards to the top of the back; that part being elevated considerably above the rest into a pointed process; and from thence are continued along the sides to the tail : the face is flat, and subtriangular, ycUowisli, surrounded first by a black, and then by a red border; and is dis- tinguished by two deep-black eyes or spots on each side the upper part : from the tail, which is extended into two long, roughened, sharp-pointed, tubular processes, proceed, on the least irritation, two long, red, flexible tentacula, the animal seem- ing to exert them as if for the purpose of terrify- ing its disturbers; lifting up the fore-part of the body at the same time, in a menacing attitude, and presenting a highly grotesque appearance: it also possesses the power of suddenly ejecting from its mouth, to a considerable distance, an acri- monious reddish fluid, which it uses as a farther defence, and which produces considerable irrita- tion if it happens to be thrown into the eyes of the spectator. This caterpillar is principally seen on Willows and Poplars, and when the time of its change arrives, descends to the lower part of the tree, and envelops itself in a glutinous case, pre- pared by moistening with its saliva the woody fibres of the tree, and covering itself with them, attaching the edges very closely to the bark: this ease, having very much the colour of the bant itself, is not very conspicuous, so that the in- sect generally remains secure under jts covering throughout the whole winter, it being too close to 2'28 MOTH. be penetrated by the frost, and too strong to be successfully attacked by birds, &c. it requires even a very sharp knife, assisted by a strong hand, to force it open. The chrysalis is thick, short, and black, and in the month of Alay or June, accord- ing to the warmth or coolness of the season, gives birth to the Moth, which, immediately on emerg- ing from the upper part of the chrysalis, discharges a quantity of fluid sufficient to soften effectually the walls of its prison, and effect a ready escape. This moth, from its unusually downy appearance, has obtained the popular title of the Puss Moth. Phalceiia fuscicauda or the Brown-Tail Moth is remarkable for the ravages which its caterpillar commits, by destroying the foliage of trees and hedges, and reducing them to a perfectly bare ap- pearance. The moth itself is about a third part ' less than that of a Silkworm, and is of a fine satiny white, except the hinder part of the body, which is of a deep brown. The caterpillar is brown, with ferruginous hairs, a row of white spots along each side, and tvt^o red spots on the lower part of the back: it is of a gregarious nature, vast numbers residing together under one common web: they are hatched early in autumn, from eggs laid by the parent moths *, and immediately form for themselves a small web, and begin feeding on the foliage of the tree or shrub on which they were placed: they marshal themselves with great regu- * See Curtis's History of the Brown-Tail Moth. Lond^ 1783, 4to. MOTH. ^29 larity for this purpose in rows, and at first devour only the upper pellicle and the green parenchyma of the leaves, and in the evening retire to their web. In about tliree weeks they cast their skin, and afterwards proceed to feed as before, enlarg- ing their web from time to time, and forming it on all sides as strong and secure as possible. In this tiiey remain the whole winter in a state of torpidity, ^till being enlivened by the warmth of the returning spring, they again issue from their covering, and being now grown stronger, begin to devour the whole substance of the leaves, in- stead of contenting themselves with the upper part as in their very young state. The destruc- tion which they sometimes cause to the verdure of the country may be judged of by their ravages in the year 1782, when, according to the account of the ingenious Mr. Curtis, author of the Flora Londinensis, &c. in many parishes about London subscriptions were opened and the poor people employed to cut off and collect the webs at one shilling per bushel, which were burned, under the inspection of the church-wardens, overseers, or beadles of the respective parishes. At the first onset of this business Mr. Curtis assures us he was informed that fourscore bushels were collected in one day in the parish of Clapham alone. When these caterpillars are arrived at fidl growth, which is usually about the beginning of June, each spins itself a separate web, in v.hich it changes to a dark-brown chrysalis, out of which in the begin- ning of July proceeds the Moth. 230 MOTH.: But of all the Moths of the tribe Bombyx the Phalcena Mori or Silkworm Moth is by far the most important. This is a whitish Moth, with a broad pale-brown bar across each of the upper wings. The caterpillar or larva, emphatically known by the title of the Silkworm, is, when full grown, nearly three inches long, and of a yellow- ish grey colour: on the upper part of the last joint of the body is a horn-like process, as in many of the Sphinges. It feeds, as every one knows, on the leaves of the white Mulberry, in defect of which may be substituted the black Mulberry, and even, in some instances, the Lettuce and a few other plants. The Silkworm remains in its larva state about six weeks, changing its skin four times during that period, and, like other cater- pillars, abstaining from food for some time before each change. When full grown the animal en- tirely ceases to feed, and begins to form itself a loose envelopement of silken fibres in some con- venient spot which it has chosen for that purpose, and aftervvards proceeds to enwrap itself in a much closer covering, forming an oval yellow silken case or ball about the size of a pigeon's egg, in which it changes to a chrysalis, and after lying thus inclosed for the space of about fifteen days, gives birth to the Moth. This however is always carefully prevented when the animals are reared for the purpose of commerce, the Moth greatly injuring the silk of the ball by discharging a quantity of coloured fluid before it leaves the cell: the silk-balls are therefore exposed to such q. THALANL^'A 77 C4»? -^»^; m^^^ Fhalamti J fori or Siiku-orrrv in us vtjru^us states. i^c>.>. Cu^iZciidciiJiitluhaitv AKf4iisicy.Fh£t Stivi-t. MOTH. 13 [ degree of heat as to kill the inclosed chrysalides; a. few only being saved for the breed of the following year. The Moth, when hatched, is a very short- lived animal; breeding soon after its exclusion, and when the females have laid their eggs, they, as well as the males, survive but a very short time. The length of the silken fibre or thread drawn by the silkworm in forming his ball, is computed by Mons\ Ishard, a French author, who wrote on the subject of the Silkworm in the seventeenth century, to be six English miles in length. This computation however appears to be a greatly ex- aggerated one. The length indeed may be sup- posed to differ considerably in different silk-balls, but in general will be found far short Of what is stated by Isnard. According to Boyle, as quoted by Derham, a lady, on making the experiment, found the length of a ball to be considerably more than three hundred yards, though the weight was only two grains and a half. The Abbe La Pluche informs us that of two balls one measured nine hundred and twenty-four feet, and the other nine hundred and thirty. It may be proper to add, that the silk throughout its whole length is double, or composed of two conjoined or aggluti- nated fdaments*. The general history of the manufacture of Silk * In the Encyclopaedia Britannica we are informed that the lengtli varies in different coccoons from 200 to 12(X) ells, and that in general we may calculate the production of a coccoow from 500 to 600 ells In length. 232 MOTH. may be found in the Cyclopaedia of Mr. Chambers and many other siiiiilar publications, and is nearly as follows. The art of manufacturing Silk is said to have been first invented in the island of Cos, by a woman of the ijame of PamphUis the daughter of Platis. The discovery was not long unknown to the Romans, Silk was brought to them from Serica, where the insect itself was a native; but so far were they from profiting by the discovery, that they could not be induced to believe so fine a thread to be the work of an insect, and formed many chimerical conjectures of their own on the subject. Silk was a very scarce article among them for many ages: it was even sold weight for weight with gold ; insomuch that Vopiscus in- forms us that the Emperor Aurelian, who died A. D. 275, refused the Empress his wife a robe of silk, which she earnestly solicited, merely on ac- count of its dearness. Others however, with greater probability, assert that it was known at Rome so early as the reign of Tiberius, about A. D. 17, Galen, who lived about the year of our Lord 173, speaks of the rarity of Silk, being no where then but at Rome, and there only among the rich. Heliogabalus the Emperor, who died A. D. 220, is said by some to have been the first person that w^ore a holosericum, i. e. a garment entirely of silk. The Greeks of the army of Alexander the Great are said to have been the first who brought wrought silk from Persia into Greece, about 323 years before Christ; but the manufacture of it was MOTH. 233 first confined to Berytus and Tyre in Phoenicia, whence it was dispersed over the West. At length two monks, coming from the Indies to Constan- tinople, in 535, under the encouragement of the Emperor Justinian, brought with them great quan- tities of Silkworms, with instructions for hatching the eggs, rearing and feeding the worms, and drawing, spinning, and working the Silk. Upon this, manufactures were set up at Athens, Thebes, and Corinth. The Venetians, soon after this time commencing a commerce with the Greek Empire, supplied all the Western parts of Europe with silks for many centuries; though several kinds of modern silk manufactures were unknown in those times, such as Damasks, Velvets, Satins, &c. About the year 1130, Roger the second. King of Sicily, established a silk manufacture at Palermo, and another in Calabria, managed by workmen who were a part of the plunder brought from Athens, Corinth, &c. whereof that prince made a conquest in his expedition to the Holy Land. By degrees, adds Mezeray, the rest of Italy, as well as Spain, learned from the Sicilians and Calabrians the ma- nagement of Silkworms, and the working of Silk; and at length the French acquired it, b}^ right of neighbourhood, a little before the reign of Francis the first, and began to imitate them. Thuanus indeed, in contradiction to most other writers, makes the manufacture of Silk to be introduced into Sicily two hundred years later, by Robert the Wise, King of Sicily, and Count of Provence. ' It appears by the 33d. of Henry 6th. cap. 5, '234 . MOTH. that there was a company of Silk- Women in Eng- land so early as the year 1455; but these were probably employed in needle-works of silk and thread; and we find that various sorts of small haberdashery of Silk were manufactured here in 1482; but Italy supplied England and all other parts with the broad manufacture till the year 1489- I^^ Spain indeed the culture and manu- facture of silk seem to have been introduced at an early period by the Moors, particularly in Murcia, Cordova, ;ind Granada. The silk-manufacturers of this last town were very flourishing when it was taken by Ferdinand, &c. at the close of the fifteenth century. In 1521, the French, being supplied with workmen from Milan, commenced a silk manufacture; but it was long after this time before they could obtain raw silk from the v/orms, and even in the year 1 547 silk was scarce and dear in France, and King Henry the second is said to have been the first in that country who wore a pair of silk knit stockings; though the invention originally came from Spain, whence silk stockings were brought over to Henry the eighth, and Ed- ward the sixth. After the civil wars in France, the plantation of Mulberry-trees was greatly en- couraged by King Henry the fourth and his suc- cessors, and the produce of silk in France is at this day very considerable. The great advantage which the new manufacture atTorded, made our James the first very earnest for its introduction into England ; and accordingly it was recom- mended several times from the throne, and in the MOTH. 135 most earnest terms, particularly in the year i6o8, to plant mulberry-trees for the propagation of silkworms, but unhappily without effect; though from various experiments, recorded in the Pliilo- sophical Transactions, &c. it appears that the silk- worm thrives and works as well in England as in any other part of Europe. It should not here be omitted that James the first, while King of Scot- land, is said to have once written to the Earl of Mar, one of his friends, to borrow a pair of silk stockings, in order to appear with becoming dig- nity before the English Ambassador; concluding his epistle with these words; " for ye would not, sure, that your King should appear like a scrub before strangers," This shews the great rarity of silk articles at that period in Scotland; and we are told that our own Queen Elizabeth was pre- sented bv her silk-woman Mrs. MontaG;ue, with a pair of black silk stockings, with which her Majesty was so captivated that she resolved in future to wear no other stockings than silk onies. Towards the end of James the first's reign, viz. about 1620, the broad silk-manufacture was intro- duced into this country, and prosecuted with great vigour and advantage. In 1629 the silk-manu- facture was become so considerable in London, that the silk throwsters of the city and parts ad- jacent were incorporated, under the names of Master, Wardens, &c. of the Silk-Throwsters, and in 1661 this company employed above forty thou- «:and persons. The revocation of the edict of Nantes, 136 MOTH. in i685, contributed in a great degree to promote the silk miinufacture in England, as did also the invention of the silk throwing machine at Derby in 1719. So high in reputation was the English silk-manufacture, that even in Italy, according to Keysler (trav. vol. 1. p. 28g.) the English silks bore a higher price than the Italian, In the next division, or NGUtiixe, stands the beau- tiful Phalcena Nupta, a moderately large species, with the upper wings of a fine grey colour, ele- gantly clouded and varied with shades and lines of dark brown, &c. and the under wings of a vivid crimson, with two broad transverse black bars : the body is grey, but white underneath. The caterpillar, which is of a pale, flesh-coloured grey, is distinguished by a dorsal tubercle on the fore part of the body, and feeds chiefly on the willow : it changes to a chrysalis in July? and the Moth appears in August and September, The divi- sion Noctiicdi like that of Bombyi\ is extremely numerous. As an example of the GeometrcB we may adduce a very elegant moth often seen towards the middle of summer on the Elder, and called Phalcena sam- hucaria : it is moderately large, of a pale sulphur- colour, with angular wings, marked by a narrow transverse brown line or istreak. It proceeds from a green caterpillar, which like those of the rest of this section, walks in a peculiar manner; viz. by raising up the body at each progressive move- ment into the form of an arch or loop, the extre- THALx'^I^.^. />.'/v/'ivi^ J<*t^. iSc^ Oct^iZcndcnTuhS^rk^dhv &JEjf€fr j fey. Fleet ^Ure^. FHAX.^^IN'A. 79 .sambucaria verticahs rasina/ia To.slralis .'' %J^ hejc^dacti'Za eiwnimiella. r\ pade//a^ heauzd: maani/i/'J. jao^'iOctuLcruhnhiiU^hedhyCICem-^-k'r/^vr-^'^f^ MOTH. 237 mitlcs nearly approaching each other. It changes in May and June into a black chrysalis, out of which in June or July proceeds the Moth. To this division also belongs that beautiful in- sect called the Currant-Bush Motli, or Pliahena grossulariata, so frequently seen in gardens in tiie month of Jul\\ It has somewhat the appear- ance of a butterfly, with rounded white wings, marked b}"^ numerous black spots; the upper pair being still farther decorated by a pair of deep yel- low bands : the body also is of a deep golden yellow with black spots: the caterpillar is of similar .colour, and the chrysalis black. In the division Tort?ices, so named from the faculty which their caterpillars possess of rolling or twisting the leaves of the vegetables they in- habit into a tubular form, stands the elegant Phalccna pras'inana, an inhabitant of the Oak, and ■ sometimes of the Alder: the upper wings are of a line green, with two oblique yellow stripes; the lower wings pale or whitish. The caterpillar is of a yellowish green, with white specks, and the end of the body orange* coloured. In the division Pyrales stands the PhalcKnafari- nalisy distinguished by the polished surface of its wings, which have a large glaucous-brown middle area or patch, while the remainder is marked by whitish streaks: this insect, when sitting, has an obtusely triangular outline, and the abdomen is turned up at the tip. The division called Tinece comprehends those moths which are, in general, of a small size, thoug!> 238 MOTH. often of very elegant colours. Of this tribe is the PhalcenaPadella: it is of a pearly white colour, with very numerous black spots: its caterpillar is gre- garious, appearing in great quantities on various sorts of fruit-trees during the decline of summer, and committing great ravages on the leaves : these caterpillars inhabit a common web, and usually move in large groupes together: their colour is a pale greyish yellow, with numerous black spots: each caterpillar at the time of its change to chry- salis, envelops itself in a distinct oval web with pointed extremities, and many of these are sta- tioned close to each other, hanging, in a per-- pendicular direction from the internal roof of the general enclosing Aveb: the chrysalis is blackish, and the moth appears in the month of September. To this division also belong the Moths em- phatically so called, or Cloth-Moths. Of these the principal is the Phalcena vestianellay which, in its caterpillar state, is very destructive to woollen cloths, the substance of which it devours, forming for itself a tubular case w^ith open extremities, and generally approaching to the colour of the cloth on which it is nourished. This mischiev- ous species changes into a chrysalis in April, and the moth, which is universally known, appears chiefly in May and June. In the last division, called Alucitce, is one of the most elegant of the Insect Tribe, though not dis- tinguished either by large size or lively colours. It is a small moth, of a snowy whiteness, and, at first view, catches the attention of the observer by MOTH, 239 the very remarkable aspect of its wings, which are divided into the most beautiful distinct plumes, two in each upper, and three in each under wing, and formed on a plan resembling that of the long wing-feathers of birds, viz. with a strong middle rib or shaft, and innumerable lateral fibres. This moth, which is the FhaliKna pentadactyla of Lin- naeus, appears chiefly in the month of August. Its caterpillar, which is yellowish-green, speckled with black, feeding on Nettles, and changing into a blackish chrysalis enveloped in a white web. Another very remarkable species of this division is the Phalcena heTadactyla of Linnaeus ; each wing consisting of six distinct plumes. The In- sect is of a pale grey-broWn colour, with several transverse lines or bars across the feathers, and exliibiting a yevy curious spectacle in the micro- scope. It chiefly makes its appearance in the month of September. This little moth is by the Eng- lish collectors somewhat improperly called the twenty-plumed Moth, the plumes being in reality twenty-four in number. END OF PART I. / :^v 1/ / mmm Wltvmmt^i^ w, '«ff W ^Mi^ ^-i n >^^^-^^:?^ -/^ -r ^-r:; \iilil -i^^a ^hm^M^^:^'''^'