308 



INSECTS ARKOAD. 



In estimating the comparative size of animals, Hie best plan, 

 next to seeing the creatures themselves, is to draw them to scale. 

 If the reader will enlarge the illustration below, making the 

 spread of wing eight inches, and the length of the body about 

 eight inches and a hall', he Mill form a very correct idea of the 

 enormous size of the insect. 



Large as are the wings, they can be folded so closely and laid 

 so neatly along the body, thai they scarcely break the outline, 

 and the insect retains its curious resemblance to a stick. "When 



Fig. 152.— Cyphocronia Enceladus. 

 (Green-brown ; wings in-own, spotted with white.) 



the great wings, however, are opened from beneath their tiny 

 elytra, the whole aspect of the creature is altered, and it at once 

 exchanges its stick-like appearance for that of an active, flying 

 insect. The wing-cases are merely brown blotched with yellow, 

 but the wings themselves are very delicate and gauzy, and 

 coloured a dark, blackish, shining brown, relieved by a number 

 of pure white spots, varying greatly in shape, number, and size, 

 according to the individual. 



The peculiar hollowing of the fore-legs at their bases is very 



