ENTOMOLOGICAL FORGERIES. 329 



their arrangement, but the colours are generally as follows. The 

 half of the eye nearest to the base of the wing is rich ruddy 

 chestnut, while the remainder is dark brown. In the middle of 

 the eye are two crescent-shaped marks of pure white, the points 

 of the upper crescent being turned towards the tip of the wing, 

 and those of the lower crescent to the lower edge of the wing. 



Altogether, the body seems so small, an4 the spread of wing 

 so great, that we almost wonder why sQ^.little a body should 

 require such enormous wings. It must be Bemembered, however, 

 that much of this space is taken up by the elytra, whicli are not 

 only useless for flight, but are absolutely so much additional 

 weight which the wings have to support. 



We will now return to the elytra. As in one or two other 

 insects, though tliis is seldom the case, the under surface is 

 much more beautiful than the upper. Viewed from above, the 

 elytra are simple reddish brown ; but when seen from below, 

 they arc bright pink, diversified with bold mottlings of black. 



This curious disposition of colour has led to several attempts 

 at fraud, one or two examples of which are kept in the British 

 Museum as warnings to those who purchase insects without the 

 exercise of due discretion. There is as much "jockeying " in 

 insects as in horses, dogs, or pigeons, and the blacklegs of the turf 

 are quite equalled by those of the cabinet, " Doctored " insects 

 are as common as Birmingham antiquities, and the renowned 

 Flint Jack himself was not a more successful impostor than are 

 many entomological forgers. One of the most ingenious ento- 

 mological impostures that I have seen was not intended for sale, 

 but merely as a hoax by way of a practical joke. The fabri- 

 cated insect was mostly made up of parts taken from other 

 insects, but the ingenuity lay in the manner in which six spider- 

 legs were s-ubstituted for the original limbs, and each joint nicely 

 coloured so as to carry off the eye from the fabrication. The 

 head was altogether a fiction, being very neatly cut out of cork, 

 and painted so as to give it an almost exact resemblance to a 

 real head. 



Parts of one insect are substituted for those of another, and 

 in those cases where mimicry of form prevails, as in the Clear- 

 wing Moths and the Bombylidse, the deception is not easily 

 detected. In the fraudulent specimens above mentioned, the 

 insect forger has displayed an astuteness which almost 



