220 INSECTS ABROAD, 



ing beak is not so easily hidden. If, however, the head be 

 capable of being bent downwards, and there is a deep groove or 

 channel on the under surface of the thorax into which the beak 

 fits, it will be seen that the insect has only to gather its legs 

 closely to its body, and to bend the head well under the thorax, 

 to be transformed in one moment from a long-legged, long-nosed 

 Beetle, into the similitude of a round pebble or a casually fallen 

 seed. One of our best-known species, Orohitcs cyaneus, looks, 

 when thus packed up, so like the little black seed of the wild 

 hyacinth, that even a pi-actised entomologist cannot detect it 

 without a close examination. 



We can only take one example of this family, namely, Cratoso- 

 mus Roddami, a native of Brazil. As is the case with several 

 of our own Cryptorhynchidte, the colours of this species are so 

 arranged that the insect must be very difficult of detection. 



KiG. 107. — Cratosomus Koddaiiu. 

 (Yellow, with black spot.-i.) 



The head is nearly black, and is furnished with a rather long 

 and curved rostrum, the eyes being at the base, and the anteniuu 

 set at about the middle. The front of the thorax has a coating 

 of warm down, and the rest is grey, diversified by round spots 

 of jetty black. The elytra are warm yellow and deeply striated. 

 On the striae are numbers of oval black spots, which, like those 

 of the thorax, look exactly as if they were drops of thick black 

 ink or paint that had been suffered to dry, and in consequence 

 project slightly from the surface of the insect. There is a 

 narrow white edge to the elytra. 



The legs are black, and have a number of greenish scales 

 scattered over them. The third joint of the tarsus is spread 



