TWO SPLENDID INSECTS. 



453 



suggested, but in the meanwhile the insect had been described 

 under the name of Gravesii in honour of the name of the cap- 

 tain of the ship in which the insects were brought to England. 



Before the discovery of the last-mentioned insect, Pompilus 

 nooilis was by far the most beautiful of the family, and, just as 

 that insect glitters with gold, so does this one shine with silver. 

 A good specimen looks, indeed, just as if silver leaf had been 

 laid upon it and' rubbed smooth with a burnishing tool. This 

 silvery gloss is produced by a coating of very fine silvery hairs, 

 set like the pile of velvet, and therefore called " pile " to distin- 

 guish it from ordinary hair. 



There is scarcely any insect which shows so plainly the dis- 

 tinction between a specimen in good condition and one that is 

 damaged or has suffered by 

 careless handling. There are 

 several specimens in the British 

 Museum, and of them all only 

 one shows the silvery surface 

 perfectly, the rest looking 

 almost black, with a faint 

 silvery patch here and there. 

 It is astonishing how easily 

 the beauty of a specimen may 

 be marred. One very fertile 

 source of damage is re-setting. 

 When an insect has been 

 badly set or not set at all, 

 it is necessary to relax the 



stiffened joints by damp, and then to place the wings and limbs 

 in their proper position. Sometimes too much moisture is used, 

 and then the surface of an insect is often damaged. Hairy 

 insects suffer most in this respect, as the hairs become matted 

 together and so lose their lustre. In such an insect as this, 

 therefore, where the whole of the silvery sheen depends upon 

 the way in which the light is reflected by each individual hair, 

 it is evident that the least undue amount of moisture must do 

 very great injury, and in all probability destroy the lustre for 

 ever. Perhaps the sheen might be restored by soaking the 

 insect completely in spirits of wine, and then drying it by 



Fig. 234.— Pompilus nobilis. 

 (Black, silver-glossed.) 



