CONTENTS. xiii 



species (Agiwri), rests upon a hedge while discussing its^' cannibal repast, a 

 captured gnat. Hovering just above is the Dragon-Fly's enemy, and some- 

 times conqueror, the Scorpion-Fly (Panorpa), so called from the appendage 

 to its tail. To its left appears the graceful Lace wing (Henwrobius) , green 

 and golden-eyed ; the rose-leaf to the right, below, being occupied by a 

 grub, or larva (magnified), of the same carnivorous insect busy in its usual 

 occupation of destroying Aphides 272 



" Tremble on the approach af your arch-destroyer" 



A trembling " White " of the garden about to fall into the embrace (to Butter- 

 flies always fatal) of a great Green Dragon-Fly 283 



33. RESEMBLANCE AND RELATION. 



The mimicry of vegetable by animal forms is here illustrated by figures of some 

 looping caterpillars, termed " Walking branches," and byT;hat of a moth, 

 the Oak Lappet (Gastropacha quercifolia}, likened to a Walking Leaf. 

 Above the latter, fixed motionless to a branch of hawthorn, which it closely 

 simulates, is the caterpillar of the Brimstone Moth (Rumia cratcegata), the 

 moth itself appearing in flight above. On the left, another stick caterpillar 

 that of the Swallow-tail Moth ( Ourapterix sanib / ucaria\ is attached to a 

 branch of elder, of which it affords a close copy in form, colour, and 

 markings. A second specimen of the same in its walking position forms 

 an arch upon the branch below 284 



" Queer creatures! neitlier grass nor grasshoppers^" 1 



Museum visitors, lost in astonishment at the vegetable-seeming insect specimens 

 from India and China, the leaf-like, and its relative, the stalk-like Mantis 301 



34. MOTHS AS IDLERS. 



The Moths in this group are of those not figured in the frontispiece. That in 

 the foreground, beneath the white convolvulus, is the common " Tiger " 

 (Arctia caja) ; the smaller insect above, is the Humming-Bird Sphinx 

 (Macroglossa stellatarum), uncoiling its tongue for insertion into the flower. 

 The large one to the left, the Lime-Hawk (Smerinthus TilitK). Above, in 

 t upward flight, is the elegant " White Plume" (Pterophorus pentadactylus) ; 



