CHAP. VI.] BUGS. 267 



regard the inmates as human beings, who, as a punish- 

 ment for stealing wood in some former stage of existence, 

 have been condemned to undergo a metempsychosis 

 under the form of these insects. 



The male, at the close of the pupal rest, escapes from 

 one end of this singular covering, but the female makes 

 it her dwelling for life ; moving about with it at pleasure, 

 and entrenching herself within it, when alarmed, by draw- 

 ing together trie purse-like aperture at the open end. 

 Of these remarkable creatures there are five ascertained 

 species in Ceylon. Psyche DouUedaii, Westw. ; Metisa 

 plana, Walker ; Eumeta Cramerii, Westw. ; E. Temple- 

 tonii, Westw. ; and Cryptothelea consorta, Temp. 



All the other tribes of minute Lepidoptera have abun- 

 dant representatives in Ceylon ; some of them most 

 attractive from the great beauty of their markings and 

 colouring. The curious little split-winged moth (Ptero- 

 phorus) is frequently seen in the cinnamon gardens and 

 the vicinity of the fort, resting in the noonday heat in 

 the cool grass shaded by the coco-nut topes. Three 

 species have been captured, all characterised by the 

 same singular feature of having the wings fan-like, sepa- 

 rated nearly their entire length into detached sections, 

 resembling feathers in the pinions of a bird expanded for 

 flight. 



HOMOPTERA. Cicada. Of the Homoptera, the one 

 which will most frequently arrest attention is the cicada, 

 which, resting high up on the bark of a tree, makes the 

 forest re-echo with a long-sustained noise so curiously re- 

 sembling that of a cutler's wheel that the creature pro- 

 ducing it has acquired the highly-appropriate name of 

 the " knife-grinder." 



HEMIPTEEA. Bugs. On the shrubs in his compound 

 the newly-arrived traveller will be attracted by an insect 

 of a pale green hue and delicately-thin configuration, 

 which, resting from its recent flight, composes its scanty 

 wings, and moves languidly along the leaf. But expe- 

 rience will teach him to limit his examination to a 



