-02 INSECTS ABROAD. 



which was tuk-ji by Mr. Spence in Italy. It has also been found 

 in ants' nests. As far as is known, the habits of the Brentbidae 

 are very similar in the different species. In the larval Btate 

 they live under the hark of felled timber, and sometimes within 

 tin- wood itself, bul do nol appear to injure living trees. Some 

 of the North American species inhahit felled oak-trees, and have 

 been found under the hark of "sleepers" on a railroad. 



The extraordinary insect which is limned below is a native 

 of Java. The head of the male is much elongated, and, 

 slender as it is, would be -till more slender but for the thick 

 coating of brown scales with which it is clothed, and which 

 gives it a roughness of surface which, when the insect is viewed 

 through an ordinary magnifier, looks very much like the familiar 

 maple-bark with its deep corrugations. In this insect, the head 



I ig '.'7 Diurua ruicillalus 

 i Dm k brow ft, w itli white spots. ) 



of the female is very much shorter than that of her mate. The 

 Ion- antennae arc similarly clothed, except that the seventh 

 and eighth joints are white, and that the scales are Lengthened 

 into hairs. 



It is worthy of notice that the antenna' are very movable, and 

 retain their mobility alter the insect is dead and quite dry. If 

 one of these insect- he taken and turned in various directions, 



the antennae swing about as if they had 1 n set on hinges; 



and, if a drawer full of the Diurua and its allies be moved, the 

 effect of all the antennae swinging about is most singular, not to 

 sav striking, all the insects Looking as if they had come to life 

 again, and waving their antennae as if to show that they had 

 done so. 



'Hie thorax is small and of a dark-brown colour, and has 



