BEAUTY OF THE IIOPLIAS. 123 



black ; that of the head and thorax is also black, and that of the 

 elytra is chestnut, or reddish brown. The insect is found at the 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



Though we have not space for more figures of Hoplidae, some 

 of the species are too remarkable to be passed over. 



Some are covered with long hairs, one of them (Anisonyx 

 ursus) looking so like a fat, hairy spider, that it might easily be 

 mistaken for one. Its colour is black. But there is another 

 (Lynx crinitus) which is equally hairy, and which is green. 

 The most hairy of all, however, is the Per it rich la. This 

 remarkable insect is so thickly covered with long hair, even to 

 the ends of its legs, that it has no particular outline, and looks 

 exactly like a small bundle of black hairs pinched loosely 

 together. 



Some of them are exceedingly beautiful in their colouring. 

 One of them is bright green, covered with squared black spots 

 arranged in regular rows along the elytra. Another, belonging 

 to the genus Ectinohoplia, is velvety black, with two golden 

 stripes on the thorax, and the whole of the elytra, except a 

 patch in the middle, powdered with tiny golden spots. One 

 specimen in the British Museum has the spots blue instead of 

 gold. 



The most "beautiful of them all is the Hoplia cccrulca, a Beetle 

 rather larger than our own species-. To the unaided eye it is of 

 a beautiful pale blue, with a sheen like that of the richest silk. 

 This lovely exterior causes thousands of them to lose their lives, 

 for they are taken by collectors in Vast numbers, and sold for 

 the purpose of being made into those " beetle pictures " which 

 are an abomination to every true naturalist. 



When placed under the microscope with, say, a half-inch 

 power, the secret of its beauty is at once disclosed. The reader 

 may remember that many of the exotic Hoplias are thickly 

 covered with hairs. In this species the hairs are modified into 

 flattened scales, each scale having a changeable iridescence 

 playing over its surface. Blue is the predominating colour, but 

 when seen under the microscope, scarcely any two scales possess 

 exactly the same colour. Some are deep azure, edged with 

 crimson, while others are tipped with green and shining gold. 

 Some are almost entirely green, with gold edges, while others 

 are all gold except a slight edging of crimson. 



