326 INSECTS ABROAD. 



mottled with bold streaks of black and four semi-oval marks of 

 pale yellow. The inner portion is yellowish green, with three 

 bold patches of very dark and very soft brown, and the end of 

 the elytra is the same colour, with the exception of an indistinct 

 bar of ashen grey, which runs diagonally through it. 



The wings themselves are voluminous, and are covered with 

 a vast number of short, narrow, wavy white stripes, shaped 

 exactly like the conventional marks used by artists to represent 

 birds flying at a distance. In some specimens there is a slight 

 variety in the arrangement of the marks, and the colour of the 

 body is bright emerald green. When the insect is at rest, its 

 whole aspect is altered. The folded wings lie along the body 

 and are entirely concealed under the elytra, which are so formed 

 as to produce not only a ridge along the back, but a sharp hump 

 or gable in the middle of the back. The right elytron passes 

 over the left, concealing about one-third of it, so that the brown 

 marks just meet, and form continuous bands of brown on the 

 green surface. • 



The ovipositor of the female is long and sabre-shaped, and it 

 is rather curious that not only in this species, but in other 

 insects, the blades of the ovipositor are apt to separate at the tip 

 as the insect becomes dry after death. The name Acridoxcna 

 is formed from two Greek words, and intended to signify a strange 

 grasshopper. The name, however, is open to the same objection 

 as that of Xenoceros, which has already been mentioned on p. 197. 



The lower figure represents a very singular insect, of M'hich 

 there is but one species in the British Museum. Its name is 

 Scmaa (or Acantlwdes) imperialis, and it was taken at Silhet, in 

 Northern Hindostan. 



The whole aspect of this creature exactly resembles that of 

 withered foliage. It is pale yellow-brown in colour, and is all 

 crumply and spiky, like a withered branch of some thorny plant. 

 The thigh and tibia of the fore-legs are flattened and notched 

 like dried oak-leaves, and the long hind legs are furnished with 

 thorn-like spikes down to the feet. On the upper part of the 

 thorax is a crown-like patch of spikes, and there are two large 

 spikes at the end of the abdomen, just at the base of the 

 oviposilor. The abdomen is much raised along the centre, so as 

 to I'orni a decided ridge. 



