Insects^ 4c-} of Surinam, 363 



and harmless, and only occupied in ridding us of loathsome 

 and offensive vermin. The ants are the i^ormica cephalotes 

 Fabr. 52. GmeL 2802. Even after the facts recorded as pro- 

 ceeding from the all-wonderful instinct of these Cossack and 

 Arab plunderers, one can scarcely credit their bridge of 

 bodies, more singular than the chain-bridges of our rivers. 

 In my garden, I find that hymenopterous insects (after the 

 manner of swarming bees) crowd together for sleep on the 

 extremities of plants ; and I have seen a large group of four 

 species, though of different genera, and even distinct tribes, 

 attached by the feet to the bodies of each other, and slumber- 

 ing in peace and quietness. What an example for unsocial 

 and jealous men ! The custom of cutting off the leaves of 

 trees calls to one's mind the parasol ant of Trinidad. There 

 we may see marching legions of these beings, with a leaf 

 elevated over their heads, like a London crowd, on a rainy 

 day, following the lord mayor's show, with innumerable um- 

 brellas ; or rather, as they observe the order and decorum 

 which the mob despise, they represent, on a Lilliputian 

 scale, with their leafy screens, the enemies of Macbeth descend- 

 ing from " Birnam wood to Dunsinane." These leaves are, 

 however, probably collected to cover in their nest, rather 

 than to " shadow the numbers of their host." The bird is 

 probably fancied; the nest is too much like a pot of clay; 

 there should have been two instead of the four eggs, which 

 look like peas cut out of chalk. The figure gives one no 

 idea of the tiny well-proportioned nest, formed of the silken 

 pappus of plants, collected before it floats into the atmo- 

 sphere, and bound round some pensile twig with the fairy 

 fastenings of stolen cobwebs. 



Plate 19. The three small figures belong to one of those 

 splendid metallic flies which buzz, and poise themselves like 

 hawks, in the tropical landscape. She represents them to 

 have sprung from the larger pupa naturally ! but " rariore 

 metamorphosi : " one cannot fix the species. The three left- 

 hand figures represent the Papilio psidii Fabr. 525. GmeL 

 2254. The others illustrate the beautiful and curious larva, 

 folliculus, and imago of a large nocturnal moth, not inserted 

 in the works of Fabricius. The red guava (Psidium pyri- 

 ferum) is a fruit common on our higher pastures, and the 

 skirts of woods. 



Plate 20. We have here, considering the state of the 

 arts in 1726, fine figures of the gigantic bat-like E'rebus 

 (Noctua) ^trix Fabr, 3. GmeL 2529. The cocoon is of large 

 size ; and the larva, though subpilose, from its anal horn 

 approaches the outline of those of the S\)hingidce It under- 



