PICTORIAL AND POETICAL. 409 



roots of grass, and when not kept within due bounds, doing con- 

 siderable injury to the meadows. The sacred Scarabaus, or 

 beetle of the Egyptians, was venerated by that superstitious but 

 extraordinary people on account of the singular instinct dis- 

 played by it in preparing a nidus for its young ; and its figure is 

 well known to all those acquainted with the hieroglyphics on the 

 monuments of Egypt. 



The Orthoptera and Hemiptera, including the crickets, grass- 

 hoppers, cicadae, mantidse, aphides, &c. present an exception to 

 the usual transformations of insects, as in all their stages they 

 are active and voracious, and of similar form. They have no 

 quiescent state, and their whole existence between the egg and 

 the imago consists of a gradual series of approaches to perfection. 

 Before dismissing these, however, the extraordinary individuals 

 comprehended under the genera Locusta, Mantis, and Phasma, 

 popularly termed ''walking-leaves," demand a moments atten- 

 tion. As the orchideous plants, the bee and fly-flowers, seem to 

 connect plants and insects by their singularly formed blossoms ; 

 so these insects present the same remarkable similarity to the 

 leaves of plants. Their wing-cases so closely resemble in colour 

 and texture, and even in veining, fresh fallen leaves, that practical 

 botanists might be deceived by them ; and others, a celebrated 

 author observes, might, after the closest investigation, be af- 

 firmed to be nothing but a dry leaf. Sparmann relates, that 

 while resting himself beneath the shade of a tree in South 

 Africa, a leaf dropped to the ground, which on going to secure 

 as a specimen, it at once assumed animation, to his great sur- 

 prise. Various species of these insects represent the leaves of 

 the laurel, myrtle, citron, lily, sage, olive, camellia, thyme, and 

 grass. 



" As verdant leaves that silent flutter round, 

 Wafted by zephyrs o'er the flow'ry ground ; — 

 So from the trees these Mantidce arise, 

 And seem to wing unconscious o'er the skies ; 

 Or cloth'd in autumn's sober tints they stray, 

 And drop as wither'd scions from the spray." 



Neuropterous insects, of which the splendid dragon-fly is a 

 good type, pass through the usual transformations, and exhibit 

 a very singular structure. The larva of the dragon-fly (Libel- 

 lula) is an inhabitant of the water, moving along by the impulse 

 of an internal apparatus, which, like a syringe, sucks in and 

 expels the water, and one of them taken out may be seen 

 amusingly to squirt the water out of it to a considerable distance. 

 A moveable mask covers the face, which is armed with formid- 

 able mandibuliform plates, which are stretched forth to seize 

 upon such aquatic insects as are unfortunate enough to get 

 within its power When it leaves the cool depths of the water 

 for the regions of air and light, it mounts an aquatic plant, 

 gradually extricates itself from the pupa, and with a brilliant 



