270 



D E LP H AX. 



noticed. The following observations upon the Ui-i/e- 

 phila Euphorbia:, one of the rarest and most beautiful 

 species of the whole section, will, we are sure, be read 

 with interest. This species is found upon the sand 

 hills of Braunton Burrows, near Barnstaple, in Devon- 

 shire, in the month of June. On its first appearance 

 the wings are small, clumsy, shapeless appendages, 

 and are more soft and yielding than the lightest silk 

 which undulates with a breath, often remaining for 

 some time stationary in a vertical position upon the 

 stem of the spurge, allowing its wings opportunity to 

 expand and strengthen as they droop behind it. In 

 half an hour the wings are brought forward, and 

 assume their usual position. About half an hour after 

 sunset the Deilephila appears on the wing, circling 

 over the various branches of spurge scattered over 

 the surrounding waste, until a mate is found. The 

 eggs are coated with a gummy substance, by 

 which means they are easily attached to the small 

 leaves of the spurge. They hatch in a fortnight, 

 producing small black caterpillars, which shortly 

 afterwards acquire a red head and tail*. Subse- 

 quently they grow very fast, gaining at each moulting 

 additional beauty, by having red dorsal lines, and a 

 great number of minute yellow spots, two lateral ones 

 on each segment* being much larger. When full 

 grown, Mr. Curtis informs us that " they are so 

 conspicuous, that their numbers are reduced by marine 

 birds which feed upon them ; they are full grown 

 about the middle of September, when they descend 

 into the sand, and become chrysalides, forming a loose 

 case of earth around them, from which the moths 

 emerge the beginning of the following June. Some- 

 times, however, they remain in the pupa state two 

 seasons, as many lepidoptera do a wise provision of 

 nature to prevent any accident from destroying the 

 whole brood. The sand hills where the larvae are 

 found being of great extent, must have been collected 

 by the winds and storms, to which they are constantly 

 exposed. During the winter the whole soil is fre- 

 quently removed so as completely to alter the surface 

 of the country. A great number of the pupae must 

 consequently be destroyed, or buried at a considerable 

 depth below the surface, where probably they lie hid 

 until they are brought to light and life by the 

 influence of the elements." Brit. Ent., second edition. 

 These circumstances mentioned by Mr. Curtis will 

 enable us, in some degree, to account for the irregu- 

 larity in the appearance of these insects mentioned to 

 the author of this article by Mr. Raddon, the gentle- 

 man by whose exertions the majority of specimens 

 have been obtained, and since published by him in 

 the Entomological Magazine. Since 1819, he has, 

 however, been unable to obtain but a single chrysalis, 

 and the person by whom this was found informed 

 that " the valley in which you desired me to search 

 is completely filled up by the sand, and the whole 

 surface completely altered by the wind." The late 

 Captain Blcmer was not able to capture one, although 

 he resided some years upon the spot ; and Mr. Cocks, 

 in a letter to Mr. Raddon, says, " it is now ten years 

 since I took the larva, and although I have regularly 

 been in the habit of visiting the locality every year 

 several times, 1 have never been able to take it since ;" 

 although, in 1814, they were so plentiful, that Mr. 

 Raddon found not less than a hundred minute larva; 



* Abridged from the Entomological Magazine, No. 9- 



upon an armful of spurge, which he hud cut at dusk 

 the preceding evening. The rarity of the insect is 

 also greatly increased by the difficulty of rearing it. 

 The late Mr. Fuseli, the lloyal Academician, who was 

 a zealous entomologist, was enabled only to obtain 

 one moth from upwards of twenty chrysalides. 



The only species abundant in the neighbourhood 

 of London is the 1). Elpcnoz, the caterpillar of which 

 feeds upon the ladies' bed-straw in Hackney marshes, 

 Battersea Fields, &c. 



DELPHAX (Fabricius), a genus of homopterous 

 insects belonging to the family Fulgoiida;, having the 

 antennae inserted in a notch on the lower margin of 

 the eyes, and being about as long as the head, with 

 the first joint shorter than the second. The ocelli are 

 distinct ; the head is produced in front into a short 

 pointed and flattened snout, and on its underside it is 

 elongated into a tubular proboscis, directed towards 

 the breast, and which is the instrument by which tlie 

 insects are enabled to inflict wounds on the leaves and 

 twigs of plants, and to suck up the fluid which flows 

 therefrom. 



There are numerous British species belonging to 

 this genus, of small size, found amongst grass and 

 rushes, some of them occasionally do not have their 

 wings developed fully : whereas the same species in 

 certain seasons, and under peculiar circumstances, of 

 which we are unable to ascertain the nature, acquires 

 full-sized wings and wing covers, which latter are, 

 however, not more coriaceous than the former. Mr. 

 Curtis, not aware of this remarkable peculiarity, has 

 formed the subapterous individuals into a distinct 

 genus, under the name of Criomorphtu. 



One species of this genus, the Delphax saccharivora, 

 or the Cane-fly of the West Indies, is exceedingly 

 injurious in its ravages upon the young and growing 

 sugar-canes in Grenada, and some other of our Went 

 Indian possessions. A correspondent of the Magazine 

 of Natural History (vol. vi. p. 407), thus describes the 

 nature of its attacks : " For these last six months, 

 (back from March 1833), the island of Grenada has 

 been infested with a species of insect that threatens 

 not only great injury to the present crop of sugar-cane, 

 but also to render the labours of the planter entirely 

 abortive for the next crop. I am not aware that any 

 species of insect hitherto noticed has been found so 

 formidable, either in number or destructive qualities, 

 as the cane-fly, which is now propagating, and so 

 rapidly over-running the sugar plantations in this 

 colony. The insect, formed with a snout and beak 

 ending in a bristle, attacks the cane in all stages of its 

 growth, but is more particularly injurious to plants or 

 ratoons when they are young and tender. The under 

 surface of the leaf, and towards the mid-rib, or the 

 course of the larger sap vessels, is selected by the 

 insect for the scene of its operations. There it makes 

 an oblique puncture, resembling that which would 

 result from a lancet introduced in the same direction. 

 Into each of these punctures from five to fifteen eggs 

 are deposited, and each egg is placed transversely 

 with respect to the direction of the fibre of the cane, 

 which serves to overlap them, and thus afford a pro- 

 tection from the many enemies they have amongst the 

 insect race. The aperture is then covered by a very 

 slight substance, resembling that which protects the 

 eggs and young of various species of spider. This 

 substance is always to be observed attached to 

 the posterior part of the body of the insect. When 

 the insect appears on the surface of the leaf after its 



