CHAP. V. CONCEALMENTS OF INSECTS. l6l 



the water, they are secure from the larger predacious 

 sorts which surround them. A little beetle (Georyssus 

 cretifera K.), which frequents chalk, whitens itself all 

 over with that substance ; for as this animal, when 

 clean, is very black, were it not for this manoeuvre, it 

 would be too conspicuous, upon its white territory, to 

 have any chance of escape from birds or other assail- 

 ants. No insect is more celebrated for rendering itself 

 hideous, by a coat of dirt, than the Reduvius personatus 

 Fab. : when in its larva and pupa state, every part of 

 its body, even its legs and antennae, are so often covered 

 with the dust of apartments, such as particles of sand, 

 hairs of wool or silk, and other similar matters, that 

 the animal, at first sight, would be taken for one of the 

 ugliest spiders. This disguise answers a double pur- 

 pose ; first, as a protection to the insect itself ; and, 

 secondly, as a stratagem by which it secures its greatest 

 enemy, the bed-bugs, for food. Several Brazilian 

 species of the same group (Reduvidce) are covered 

 with a thick coat of down, which is also glutinous, so 

 that they can put on any disguise most adapted to their 

 wants. As Hercules, after he had slain the Nemsean 

 lion, made a doublet of its skin, so the larva of Heme- 

 robius chrysops covers itself with the skins of the luck- 

 less plant lice {Aphides] that it has slain arid devoured. 

 Some of the Cassidts have the singular custom of shel- 

 tering themselves under a canopy affixed to their tail, 

 and formed of their own excrement ; this they elevate 

 in the air, bringing it over their body precisely the 

 same as we should hold an umbrella. Mr. Kirby 

 notices the same habit in a little beetle (L,ema merdi- 

 gera Fab.), and explains the process by which it is 

 effected.* While, among the Cocci, or cochineal in- 

 sects (representing the Cas sides, in their own circle), 

 the same object is effected by very long cotton-like 

 tufts, which clothe the hinder parts of the body, and are 

 recurved over the insect. Every one must have ob- 

 served the tortoise-like Cocci found upon vines and other 



Int. to Ent. vol. ii. p. 260. 



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