320 INSECTS ABROAD. 



mens the band exists, and is very conspicuous. The thorax is 

 covered with a coating of very fine down. The elytra are very 

 narrow, and of a pale brown colour, with a black stripe along 

 the centre. 



The chief beauty of the insect is not seen until it expands its 

 wings, which are extremely delicate, and of very great size when 

 compared with the dimensions of the insect. Indeed, so sujali 

 are the elytra, and so large are the spread wings, that the insect 

 bears a most curious resemblance to an earwig, as may be seen by 

 comparing the figure of the Ehipipteryx with that of Forficesila 

 Americana, on page 281. Tlie name Rhipipteryx. refers to the 

 size and shape of the wing, being 

 formed of two Greek w^ords, the 

 former of which signifies " a fan," 

 and the other " a wing." 



Tlds species is a native (jf 

 ^Mexico. Small as it is, there 

 are others very much smaller ; 

 one of them, an inhabitant of 

 Ceylon, being no larger than a 

 common gnat, for which it might 

 easily be mistaken. Its name is 



Fig. 159.— Rhipipteryx marginatus. t^i ■ ■ , f rr ■ i ^ i \ ■ 



(Brown-yellow, and black thorax. ) RllipipteryX. ( Or 1 Tlda chjlus) nigVO- 



ceneus. Writing of the strange 

 shapes assumed by foreign Achetidse, Mr. Westwood makes the 

 following remarks : — " I possess several very curious minute 

 species belonging to this family, which singularly represent 

 Coleopterous insects. Of these, a Brazilian species has all the 

 appearance and even colours of a Cicindela ; whilst a small 

 Mauritian species has the wing-cases thick and glossy, oval, 

 convex, and meeting with a straight suture, exactly like elytra 

 (of beetles)." 



The next family is the Locustidtc. The insects belonging to 

 tliis family may be known by their elytra, which are "so deflexed" 

 when at rest, i.e. tiirned down on either side of the body, that 

 the general shape of the insect much resembles that of a gabled 

 roof. The antennas are slender, but moderate in length, and all 

 the tarsi have three joints. The two latter characteristics are 

 useful in separating this family fi'<nn that which immediately 



