366 



the fruits is the group of eggs. In the ^lattae, we have the 

 eggs enclosed in a common inartificial egg-cell [locidus). The 

 Phasmadae lay them separately; whereas, in the Mantidas, 

 though the eggs are laid singly, they are always agglutinated 

 in a group of a given determined form, which is preserved 

 after the young have escaped by the vertical foramina. After 

 the deposition of the ova (eggs), the female secretes a wax-like 

 fluid, and varnishes the mass ; all the time directing the 

 motion of the anus by the styles, which serve as anal antennas. 

 The cockroach apple (*Solanum mammosum), without flowers, 

 is tolerably executed ; and is said to expel those noxious 

 creatures [see V. 481.] from which its trivial name is de- 

 rived : but I doubt w^hether it possesses this much-desired 

 property. 



Plate ^8. The three upper figures belong to an undescribed 

 pale moth. The larva is most interesting; the lanate processes 

 are said, like cowitch, to inflame the surface of the body; and 

 the animal adheres by an agglutinating skin. The rude and 

 larger figure represents one of the most gigantic and singular 

 of the Capricorn tribes of beetles, the Acrocinus longimanus 

 Kirhy^ Pribnus Fahr. 1., Cerambyx GmeL 1814., Macropus 

 pictus Leach, Zool. Misc. vol. ii. tab. 89. The fruit is the 

 citron (Citrus ilfedica var.) cultivated in our gardens; the 

 thick rind of which is dried in sugar, as in Madeira, and used 

 in pastry. Considering the former state of the arts, this is cer- 

 tainly a masterly plate, representing the various states of the 

 gorgeous Urania Leilu5, Papilio Fabr. 63. Gmel. 2237.* The 

 fine fruit is that of the shaddock (Citrus decumana L.), said 

 to be so named after the captain who introduced it : there is 

 a variety with red and another with white pulp. If the fruit 

 of the shaddock is suffered to ripen on the tree, it is doubt- 

 less one of the finest of the citrine tribe, and certainly the 

 largest. The clusters of this gigantic fruit are so heavy, that, 

 were not the wood close-grained and very tough. Flora would 

 have been compelled to suspend these bulky presents on the 

 trunk; as she has done the jack fruit (Artocarpus integrifolia 

 X.) and other larger productions of the vegetable kingdom. 



[* Mr. MacLeay in a communication to the Zoological Society, read on 

 Feb. 11. 1834, has described the egg, larva, pupa, imago, transformations, 

 and characteristics of form and of habits, in a good degree of detail, of a 

 previously undescribed species of Urani«, which he has named Urania Fer- 

 nandinae. An abstract of this communication is published in Taylor's 

 Philosophical Magazine for June, 1834, vol. iv. p. 460 — 462. third se- 

 ries. Mr. MacLeay, in concluding his communication on the U. Fernan- 

 dinae, refers " to Madame Merian's description of the metamorphosis of 

 U. Leilu*, and to her figure of its larva, both of which he regards as un- 

 worthy of credit." (Taylor's Phil. Mag. as above.)] 



