460 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



is by covering themselves with various substances. Of this description is 

 a little water-beetle (Elophorus aqnaticus), which is always found covered 

 with mud, and so when feeding at the bottom of a pool or pond can 

 scarcely be distinguished, by the predaceous aquatic insects, from the soil 

 on which it rests. Another very minute insect of the same order (Lim- 

 nius csneus) that is found in rivulets under stones and the like, sometimes 

 conceals its elytra with a thick coating of sand, that becomes neariy as 

 hard as stone. I never met with these animals so circumstanced but once ; 

 then, however, there were several which had thus defended themselves, 

 and I can now show you a specimen. — A species of a minute coleopte- 

 rous genus (^Georyssus arenifcrusy, which lives in wet spots where tfie 

 toad-rush (^Juncus bufonius) grows, covers itself with sand ; and another 

 neariy related to it (^Chatophorus cretiferus K.) which frequents chalk, 

 whitens itself all over with that substance. As this animal, when clean, 

 is very black, were it not for this manoeuvre, it would be too conspicuous 

 upon its white territory to have any chance of escape from the birds and 

 its other assailants. — No insect is more celebrated for rendering itself 

 hideous by a coat of dirt than the Reduvius peisonatus, a kind of bug 

 sometimes found in houses. When in its two preparatory states, every 

 part of its body, even its legs and antennae, is so covered with the dust of 

 apartments, consisting of a mixture of particles of sand, fragments of wool 

 or silk, and similar matters, that the animal at first would be taken for one 

 of the ugliest spiders. This grotesque appearance is aided and increased 

 by motions equally awkward and grotesque, upon which I shall enlarge 

 hereafter. If you touch it with a hair-pencil or a feather, this clothing 

 will soon be removed, and you may behold the creature unmasked, and 

 in its proper form. It is an insect of prey ; and amongst other victims 

 will devour its more hateful congener the bed-bug.^ Its slow movements, 

 combined with its covering, seem to indicate that the object of these 

 manoeuvres is to conceal itself from observation, probably, both of its 

 enemies and of its prey. It is therefore properly noticed under my present 

 head. 



As Hercules, after he had slain the Nemean lion, made a doublet of its 

 skin, so the larva of another insect {Hemerohim chrysops, a lace-winged 

 fly with golden eyes) covers itself with the skins of the luckless Aphides 

 that it has slain and devoured. From the head to the tail, this pigmy 



' In former editions of this work this insect was stated to be synonymous with Trox dnbius 

 of Panzer, which it much resembles, except in the sculpture of the prothorax {Fn. Ins. Germ. 

 Iiiit. Ixii. t. 5.) ; but as Schonherr and Gyllenhal, who had better means of ascertaining 

 the point, regard Georyssus jtyovmvs Latr. as Panzer's insect, the reference is now omitted. 

 G. areniferus differs considerably from G. pi/gjuaus, as described by Gyllenhal (Insect. Suec. 

 1. iii. 675.) The front is not rugulose, the vertex is channeled, the antennce shorter iharx 

 the head ; the prolhorax is rather shining, marked anteriorly with several excavations, in 

 the middle of which is a channel forming a reversed cross with a transverse impression. 

 Mr. Westwood remarks that the earth with which this insect is coaled cannot be for con- 

 cealment, as above stated, because it is but rarely found so covered, and only when it has 

 by chance found its way into soft muddy ground. (Mod. Class, of Ins. i. 119.) My owa 

 observations, however, lead to the different conclusion given above. I remember as if yes- 

 terday, though thirty-six years since, the surprise with which I saw creeping in a mojst 

 (but not watery) sand-pii at Elloughton, near Hull, when entomologizing, scores of what 

 seemed little moving masses of sand, and my delight on finding the, to me, new and singu- 

 lar insect which was concealed beneath; and as I afterwards repeatedly found the same 

 insect in similar siiuaiions, invariably coated with sand (not eaith), and nisver without this 

 covering, I cannot think this circumstance accidental. 



2 De Geer, iii. 283. Geoff. Hist. Ins. i. 437. 



