40 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE A. YD PRODUCTIOyS. 



FamiJi/ Cicadidse. 



DcKDUBiA iMMACULATA, "Wiilkcr. Tciiasserim. 



,, JiANNiPEHA, L. Tenasserim. 



,, riuKiA, Walker. Burma. 



,, CINCTIMANUS, Walk. 



„ ixTEiiEEATA, Walkcr. Tenasserim. 



Cicada guitularis, Walker. ISurnia. 



Of this class of insects Dr. Mason remarks : — " Those famous singers, tlie Cieadfe, 

 celebrated by Homer, Virgil, and from the ancients down to the present time, are 

 numerous both in individuals and species. One of the first objects that attracts the 

 attention of an observer in some localities of the Karcu jungles is, a clay tube several 

 inches high, raised over a shaft sunk two or three feet in the ground, over which may 

 be often see a Karen, bending and inserting the extremity of a long branch of thorny 

 rattan, -which after a few twists is withdrawn, bringing with it a grub that is deemed 

 a great luxury. The natives have a distinct name for this grub, and seem to be 

 ignorant that it is the larva of the Cicada. This I was able to verify, on one occasion, 

 by observing the exuviae of many of their pup;e adhering by claws to the serrated 

 bark of trees, with rents in their backs, out of which the perfect insect had escaped. 

 The Karens, it may be observed, are no more barbarous in their taste than the 

 civilized Greek, for Aristotle testifies that they were an article of diet, both in their 

 larval and perfect state, and one species is still eaten by the American Indians. 

 A cicada, gildcn with a bright yellow transverse band on its wings, is occasionally 

 seen. The Karens say its call is Kan-wee, Kan-tcee, and this is the name by which 

 it is known to them. I was one evening serenaded by one, that poured out its vesper 

 song from a jack tree before my door, in strains loud enough to have startled one 

 unacquainted with the musician. Its sounds were full, shrill, and continuous, 

 swelling up like an ^olian harp so as to fill all the air around. 



"The instrument on which this gay minstrel performs is a unique piece of 

 mechanism, — a perfect melodeon possessed only by the male, and which he carries 

 about between his abdomen and hind legs. It consists of two pairs of plates composing 

 a shield for the box concealed beneath. Under these plates is a delicate iridescent 

 covering, tensely stretched over the ca^aty, like the head of a drum ; and attached to 

 its inner surface are several muscular strings, secured at their opposite extremities to 

 another membrane at the posterior end of the box. The music is produced by the 

 alternate contraction and expansion of those strings, which draw the tense concave 

 covering downwards, with a rapid receding, the sounds issuing from two key-holes of 

 the instrument, strikingly analogous to the action of the melodeon." 



Platypleura nobilis. Germ. Tenasserim. 



,, iNsioNis, Dist. Tenasserim. 



Cephaiosys Teepsichoee, Walker. Burma. 

 HuECHTS pHiiJEMATA, Amyot ct Scrv. Burma. 



,, SPLENDIDDXA, Fabr. Burma. 



,, SANGUiNEA, Dc Gccr. Tenasscrim. 



,, THORACIA, Dist. Tenasserim. 



ScrEKOPTEEA sPLENDiDULA, Fab. Tcuasscrim. 



PoMPONiA TiGuoiDES, Walker. Tenasserim. 



Cryptotympana recta, Walker. Tenasserim. 



Sub-order BETEROPTERA. 



Tarsi three-jointed. Wings horizontal. Proboscis anterior. 



To this sub-order belong the common bug ( Cimex. lectidariun), the aquatic ' water- 

 boatman ' (Notonecta glaum), and the genus Redurms, a bug capable of inflicting 

 excruciating pain by the puncture; of its proboscis, if rashly handled, the puncture 

 of one species found in Hungary being occasionally said to terminate fatally. 

 Dr. Mason writes : — "There arc several spcH'ies of the same tribe that furnishes the 

 common bed-bug in the Proviuces, with precisely the same disagreeable odour, but 



