THE SPECIAL PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE OF GEOMETER 

 CATERPILLARS TO TWIGS. 



Two of their silken threads— they use these as stay-ropes when resting— 

 can be seen between the two main branches. 



BRITISH INSECTS 



Some Notes on their Forms and Colours 



By DOUGLAS ENGLISH, B.A., F.R.P.S. 



With Photographs by the Author 



IT is, I imagine, generally supposed 

 that we have no native insects which 

 can compare either in brilliancy of 

 colouring, in quaintness of form, or in 

 perfection of defence, with the insects 

 which are peculiar to tropical countries. 

 This view is unduly pessimistic. One 

 need only use a sweep-net in ]\Iay or 

 June to discover that the supposed in- 

 feriority of our native insects is merely 

 an inferiority in size. One need only 

 employ a pocket lens on the produce of 

 the sweep-net to realise that we have in 

 every field and wood, aye, and in every 

 patch of grass, a supply of grotesque forms, 

 of brilliant colourings, and of marvellous 

 adaptations, which is practically in- 

 exhaustible. Let the reader, who has 

 not already done so, suitably illuminate 

 and examine one of the emerald or 

 turquoise Weevils which swarm on the 

 whitethorn in June ; let him feast his 



eyes on a scarlet-clad Hemipteron, or 

 on that exquisite little Tortoise Beetle, 

 whose wing-covers are banded with gold- 

 green ribbons and edged with sea-shell 

 pink ; let him study one of the lilliputian 

 ]\Ioths, those wisps of fluff and spangle, 

 which flit from leaf to leaf of every 

 hedgerow — and he must assuredly admit 

 that the museums have nothing more 

 beautiful to show him. Nor need he 

 confine himself to microscopic forms. 

 Let him consider such resplendent British 

 insects as the Tiger and the Rosechafer 

 among Beetles, the Sulphur and tiie 

 Peacock among Butterflies, the Hover- 

 flies generally, the Dragon- flies, and, per- 

 haps most brilliant of all, that small but 

 matchless Hymenopteron Chrysis igiiita — 

 the " Fire of (iold." 



That brilliancy of colouring must serve 

 some purpose in Nature's economy is 

 certain, but there is no certainty as to 



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