156 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



of the wickedly thorny four-sided vine called "Rabo de la 

 Iguana" {Mimosa velloziana) were growing in the valley. 



On the way down we all noticed a colony of large insects on 

 a Croton leaf, our attention being attracted to them by the 

 brilliant metallic reflections as the wind shook the leaf in 

 the sunlight. As we returned we stopped and secured the 

 leaf. The insects proved to be real "bugs" (Hemiptera) 

 about half an inch long and three-eighths wide, with long 

 beaks stuck into the leaf, on which they were packed as 

 closely as possible. They were beautiful creatures. The 

 legs were metallic blue, the bodies metallic bronze-green, 

 bronze-blue, bright blue and red, all glittering and sparkling 

 in the bright sunshine, and the effect of the whole colony 

 was dazzling. They had as yet but the rudiments of wings 

 and belonged to the family Pentatomidse; they may possibly 

 be the young stages of Arocera splendens, the adult of which 

 we took at electric lights in Cartago on July 3. 



Four miles east of Cartago, just south of the railroad, 

 lay a pretty boggy pool, in part thickly overgrown with a 

 sedge {Eleocharis sp.) in which the dragonfly jEshna lutei- 

 pennis laid its eggs, in other places covered from October 

 to June with the lovely little gentian, Limnanthemum hum- 

 boldtianum. The heart-shaped leaves of this plant float 

 like those of water-lilies, while the starry white flowers with 

 their delicately fringed petals are lifted above the water. 

 Although it occurs throughout Central America and the 

 Antilles, L. humboldtianum had not been reported in Costa 

 Rica before our collecting it, except in the district of Tala- 

 manca. The subsoil about this " Limnanthemum pool " was a 

 red gravel and in April great quantities of the common red 

 and yellow terrestrial orchid Epidendrum radicans, were 

 growing in it. This handsome orchid seems to prefer red 

 gravel and exposed, eroded banks, and near Cartago at least 

 we always found it in such situations. 



