128 INSECTS ABROAD. 



Beetle is, as its name denotes, golden green, but there is also a 

 gloss of fiery copper-red, sometimes becoming rich carmine, which 

 changes and flits from spot to spot as the light is altered. It is 

 curious to see how a spot which has been emerald green, flecked 

 with burnished gold, will, if the insect be moved but a hair's 

 breadth, change to glowing carmine. The legs, especially the 

 thighs of the hind-legs, seem to be more susceptible to this 

 change. The reader will probably have noticed that the green 

 and crimson are complementary colours. 



The head is smooth, satiny green, profusely studded with 

 minute punctures, and the thorax is like the head, except that it 

 is granulated as well as punctured. The elytra are closely and 

 finely granulated. The chief interest of this insect, however, 

 lies in the enormous hind-legs, which are so large that in a well- 

 developed male, whose head, thorax, and abdomen together 

 measure an inch and a half, one hind-leg measures exactly two 

 inches. If the Beetle be viewed from below, the enormous 

 development, of the thigh is seen, this portion of the leg Vicing 

 rounded, stout, and of a glossy satin-like green. On the tibia 

 coppery red prevails, and the tarsus is deep purple. The tibia 

 is slightly curved, and at its extremity is armed with an enor- 

 mously long and sharp spine or spur, slightly curved. 



The Chrysophora has a near relative, popularly and appro- 

 priately called the Kangaroo Beetle, because its hind-legs are 

 proportionately as large as those of the kangaroo. Indeed, the 

 Beetle seems to be all hind-leg, the body and the other four legs 

 looking quite insignificant when compared with the gigantic 

 hinder limbs. This is also a green Beetle. 



