THE WALKING-LEAF INSECT. 207 



and the Mars beetles — whose very names indicate that they are 

 ' first-rate liners ' in the insect world. All these beetles excavate 

 burrows in the earth, where they conceal themselves during 

 the day, or live in the decomposed trunks of trees, and are 

 generally of a dark rich brown or chestnut colour. On the ap- 

 proach of night they run about the footpaths in woods, or fly 

 around the trees to a great height with a loud humming noise. 

 Eesembling the large herbivorous quadrupeds by their com- 

 parative size and horn-like processes, they are still further like 

 them in their harmless nature, and thus deserve in more than 

 one respect to be called the elephants among the insect 

 tribes. 



•4 /■/ j^yy 



LEUCOPHOLIS BIMACULATA. 



Many of the tropical dragon-flies, grasshoppers, butterflies, 

 and moths are of no less colossal dimensions in their several 

 orders than the giants among the beetles. The Libellula 

 lucretia, a South American dragon-fly, measures five, inches 

 and a half in length, and the cinnamon-eating Atlas-moth of 

 Ceylon often reaches the dimensions of nearly a foot in the 

 stretch of its superior wings. The names of many other species 

 conspicuous by their size might be added ; but these examples 

 suffice to show the enormous proportions attained by insects 

 in the warmer regions of the globe. 



In the tropical zone, where the prodigality of life multiplies 



