788 



INSECTS ABROAD. 



was an insect and not the creation of some fantastic manu- 

 facturer of sham insects. It is a native of Mexico. 



The general colour of the insect is pale green, but it has upon 

 its head a crest of long soft, silken, gold-coloured hair. The 

 whole under surface of its body is covered with a white downy 

 secretion, which looks as if the insect had been hastily made 

 from cotton- wool. The long fibres that trail behind the insect 

 are of similar material, and look very much as if they had been 

 made of cotton-wool loosely twisted between the hands. There 

 are many other insects which secrete a similar substance, but 

 we have not sufficient space even to mention them. 



We shall now come to several insects of most extraordinary, 

 not to say grotesque, forms, the first of which is called Hemi- 



ptycha punctata. It is a 

 native of Brazil, and in 

 order to show its peculiar 

 form the figure is slightly 

 enlarged. 



The enormous thorax 

 covers the whole upper 

 surface of the insect, widen- 

 '__ ing and stretching out its 

 two horns at the upper 

 end, and projecting in a 

 point at the other end, 

 __ until it overpasses the ab- 

 domen. The colour of the 

 thorax is yellow, mottled 

 with black, and it is thickly 

 its centre runs a narrow line of 

 shining black, and another line of a similar character runs from 

 the tip of one horn to that of the other. 



The upper wings are yellowish in the centre and brown lound 

 the edges, and the lower pair are simply pale brown. It is a 

 large genus, and most of the species are Brazilian. 



Fig. 479.— Hemiptycha punctata. 

 (Black niid yellow.) 



and deeply punctured. Alonf 



On Plate XVIII. Fig. 3 is shown an insect called Flata [or 

 Pceciloptera'\ circulata. 



It is a native of Java, and is a very pretty insect, the colours 



