THE FIDDLER, OR MORMOLYCE. 39 



they are safely hidden among the grass and other herbage. 

 Although they use the grass as a city of refuge, they appear to 

 be very ill at ease among it, their long heads and necks coming 

 awkwardly in contact with the leaves among which they are 

 crawling. 



Of these curious Beetles forty species are known, the largest 

 and handsomest of which is Agra Moritrii, an insect whose 

 colour is rich metallic gold glossed with crimson. The whole 

 of the upper surface is deeply pitted, which gives additional 

 richness to the colouring. 



Among all the Insects Abroad, there is not one which at first 

 sight takes the attention more instantly than the strange-looking 

 creature which is represented on Plate I. Fig. 4. No matter 

 how large, beautiful, or strange may be the other insects with 

 which it is placed, the eye at once fixes on this flat, leaf-like 

 creature, in spite of its comparatively dull hue. Like most of 

 the foreign insects, it has for some time borne no English popular 

 name. Eecently, however, it has been found in considerable 

 numbers near Penang, where it goes by the popular name of 

 Fiddler, on account of its singular form, which has some 

 resemblance to that of a flattened fiddle. Scientifically it is 

 termed Mormolycc phyllodes, the meaning of which name will 

 presently be explained. 



It is a native 'of Java and China, and is not very scarce, 

 being found, as might be surmised from its shape, under bark 

 and in similar localities. It has well been said that Nature 

 never leaves a crevice but she makes something flat to creep 

 into it, and certainly the Mormolyce carries out this theory, for 

 it is so flat, that if the crevice be only wide enough, its depth 

 is of little consequence. 



The actual body of this beetle, though long, is not very w r ide, 

 the width seeming to have been given to the elytra, or wing- 

 cases, and the edges of the thorax. The elytra are flattened in 

 the most extraordinary manner. They are scarcely thicker 

 than the paper on which this account is printed, and are of a 

 horny and translucent character, so that they permit the legs 

 to be seen through them. Indeed, so transparent are they, that 

 if one of these beetles be held over a book printed in bold type, 

 and the light carefully adjusted, the capital letters can be read 



