170 



HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. V. 



enemies, and thus contribute to their safety. The 

 whole family of Chrysidce are of this description ; while 

 the extreme hardness of their covering equivalent, in 

 them, to a suit of polished armour is one of the best 

 defences they can enjoy Against the attacks of bees and 

 wasps, in whose nests they deposit their eggs. The 

 brilliant metallic colours which adorn these beautiful 

 little insects, by their radiance, are well calculated to 

 dazzle the sight of their enemies, especially in those 

 sunny situations where they love to sport. The fearful 

 aspect and threatening appearance of many insects is, 

 undoubtedly, another means of passive defence, to 

 which we have already adverted. The formidable aspect 

 given to many coleopterous insects as the horned 

 beetles (Dynastida) and the stag beetles (Lucanidce) 

 by their large and grotesque horns, the spiny processes 

 on the heads and bodies of many caterpillars, and the 

 dark yet dazzling lustre on the wings of the sand wasps 

 (Sphegides), are all calculated to excite fear in the in- 

 sect world; and produce, even in our own minds, a 

 repugnance to come into contact with such creatures. 

 But, of all the grotesque and diversified forms which 

 Nature has given to these 

 creatures, none are so ex- 

 traordinary as those of the 

 Membracidce (fig. 58.), a 

 family of the neuropterous 

 order. Some are furnished 

 with a long blunt horn, 

 placed nearly straight for- 

 wards on the head, and as 

 long as their whole body ; 

 others have horns shaped like 

 acute spines, directed verti- 

 cally: one bears an elevated 

 shield, which extends over 

 and protects the whole upper part of the body ; while 

 the most complicated of these extraordinary defences is 

 a buckler, or crescent, of spiny balls, placed over the 



