HEMIPTERA. 37 



tlie young shoots, and in holes they bore with their sheath. They live on the juices of 

 the trees." 



M. Merian gives a figure and account of the metamorphosis of a cicada found in 

 Surinam. She has mistaken the winged insect to be only the pupa of the Falgora 

 Lateiviaria, which is too absurd to deserve contradiction ; in other respects her account 

 is interesting, and particularly that part which relates to the pupa state, or chafer, as it 

 is termed. " The pomegranate tree," says Merian, " so well known in all other countries, 

 grows also in the fields of Surinam. On them I have found a species of chafer, which 

 is naturally very lazy, and consequently very easy to be caught. It carries underneath 

 the head a long trunk, with which it easily penetrates the flowers, in order to extract the 

 honey from them. On the '20th of May, when they were laying quite quiet, the skin of 

 the back burst open, and green flies, with transparent wings, issued from them. These 

 flies are found in abundance in Surinam, and have such a rapid flight, that it took me 

 many hours to catch one." 



The pupa Donovan received from China with Cicada atrata very much resembles 

 that figured by Merian. It has the long sucking trunk or proboscis; but the most 

 formidable of its weapons seem to be the fore feet, which are thick, strong, and armed 

 with spines or teeth ; with these it may do more injury to the plants, by tearing off" the 

 tender shoots, than by wounding the trunk to extract the moisture. 



The upper and under side of a male of Cicada atrata are represented, not only to 

 illustrate our preceding remarks, but because Donovan believed no figure had been given 

 of it by any author, unless De Zurite Chincesche cicade of Stoll (PI. 20. fig. 118.) is 

 intended for this insect. 



The general appearance of both sexes of Cicada atrata is very similar, except that 

 the female is furnished with a sheath, and the male with lamellae. The sheath of the 

 female is partly concealed within a valve at the extremity of the abdomen, and is only 

 protruded when the creature lays her eggs. In the figure of the under surface of a male 

 insect, exhibited in the annexed plate, the lamellae are distinguished by two stars : the 

 single star denotes the situation of the spine, mentioned by Roesel and Reaumur. 



The Camphor-tree, Laiu'us Cconphora, is represented in the plate. The tree which 

 produces the useful drug camphor is very abundant in Japan and China, Sir G. Staunton 

 says, it is the only species of the laurel genus growing in China, where it is a large and 

 valuable timber tree, and is never cut up for the sake of the drug ; but that substance is 

 obtained by decocting the small branches, twigs, and leaves, and subliming the camphor 

 in luted earthen vessels. A purer sort is brought from the island of Borneo and Japan, 

 which is supposed to be a natural exudation from the tree when the bark is wounded. 

 Sir G. Staunton says, the Camphor-tree is felled in those countries for the sole purpose 

 of finding the drug in substance among the splinters. 



