136 PHYTOPHAGA ; CASSIDID.E. 



Several of them are brilliantly coloured, especially the tropical 

 species ; and some are remarkable for exhaling an agreeable 

 musky odour. This is the case with a British species, the Cal- 

 lichroma moschata, or Musk-beetle, which is about an inch long, 

 entirely green, or shaded with a blue or golden hue, and very 

 common upon willows. The genus 

 Acanthocinus is remarkable for 

 the spiny projections from its ely- 

 tra ; and the species represented 

 in the accompanying figure de- 

 rives its specific name (which 

 means mirror-bearing) from its 

 having a bright burnished disc on 

 each of the elytra. 



718. The last tribe of the Te- 



_ , FIG. 456 ACANTHOCINUS SPECULIFER. 



tramerous section, that of the 



PHYTOPHAGA, presents many points of interest, on account of 

 the singular forms, and remarkable habits, of many of the species 

 which it includes. The insects composing it are usually of small 

 size, but are often ornamented with metallic and brilliant colours ; 

 they are generally slow in their motions, timid, and fall to the 

 ground when an attempt is made to seize them, folding their 

 antennae and legs beneath the body ; many species leap well. 

 Like the Longicorns, they are destitute of the rostrum, or muz- 

 zle-like prolongation of the head, which is characteristic of the 

 Weevils ; but their bodies are usually of a circular or oval shape, 

 rarely elongated ; their antennas are comparatively short, usually 

 thread-shaped, or slightly thickened toward the tips ; and their 

 mandibles are small, and quite concealed when closed. The 

 Iarva3 have six feet, and a soft body ; they feed, like the perfect 

 insects, upon the leaves of different vegetables, where they ordi- 

 narily affix themselves by means of a glutinous secretion ; and 

 they frequently undergo their change into the pupa state in the 

 same situation, the cast-skins of the larva? being crumpled up at 

 the extremity of the body of the pupse. The first family of this 

 tribe consists of the Cassidida, or Tortoise Beetles ; these have 

 a flattened body, surrounded by a margin, which is formed by a 



