MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 259 



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 personatus, F., 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 co- 

 vered with the dust of apartments, consisting of a mix- 

 ture 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 appear- 

 ance is aided and increased by motions equally awk- 

 ward and grotesque, upon which I shall enlarge here- 

 after. If you touch it with a hair-pencil or a feather, 

 this clothing will soon be removed, and you may be- 

 hold 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 con- 

 ceal itself from observation, probably, both of its ene- 

 mies and of its prey. It is therefore properly noticed 

 under my present head. 



As Hercules, after he had slain the Neraean lion, 

 made a doublet of its skin, so the larva of another in- 

 sect (Ilemerobtus Chrysops, L., a lace-winged ily 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 pygmy destroyer of the helpless 

 is defended by a thick coat, or rather mountain com- 

 posed of the skins, limbs, and down of these creatures. 



* De Gecr, iii. 283— GoofiV. Hist. Ins. i. 437. 

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