202 INSECTS ABROAD. 



which was taken by Mr. Spence in Italy. It has also been found 

 in ants' nests. As far as is known, the habits of the Breuthidfe 

 are very similar in the different species. In the larval state 

 they live under the bark of felled timber, and sometimes within 

 the wood itself, but do not appear to injure living trees. Some 

 of the North American species inhabit felled oak-trees, and have 

 been found under the bark of " sleepers" on a railroad. 



The extraordinary insect which is figured below is a native 

 of Java. The head of the male is much elongated, and, 

 slender as it is, would be still more slender but for the thick 

 coating of brown scales with which it is clothed, and which 

 gives it a roughness of surface which, when the insect is viewed 

 through an ordinary magnifier, looks very much like the familiar 

 maple-bark with its deep corrugations. In this insect, the head 



of tlie female is very much shorter than that of her mate. The 

 long antennae are similarly clothed, except that the seventh 

 and eighth joints are white, and that the scales are lengthened 

 into hairs. 



It is worthy of notice that, tlie ant ennse are very movable, and 

 retain their mobility after the insect is dead and quite dry. If 

 one of these insects be taken and turned m various directions, 

 the antennaa swing about as if they had been set on hinges ; 

 and, if a drawer full of the Diurus and its allies be moved, the 

 effect of all the antennae swinging about is most singular, not to 

 say striking, all the insects looking as if they had come to life 

 again, and waving their antennte as if to show that they had 

 done so. 



The thorax is small and of a davk-brown colour, and has 



