306 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OP INSECTS. 



not easily surpassed,, is to be found in the common dia- 

 mond beetle, Entimus imperialis, and its neighbour E. 

 splendidus, insects usually so abundant in the Brazils, 

 that the trees which they inhabit a species of Acacia 

 are more densely covered with them than with their 

 leaves, and which would thus happily prefigurate the 

 gardens of the Hesperides with their golden fruit, here 

 refulgent with the most delicate and varied tints of gems 

 and metals. Cyphus also is very rich in its vestments, 

 yet few surpass the elegant little Coniates Tamarisci, 

 which, upon a golden green ground, has a couple of 

 oblique bands of a bright coppery hue. The colour of 

 these insects, for which we have significantly used the 

 term clothing above, is produced by the imbrication of 

 a multitude of minute scales of a variety of forms, and 

 which under the microscope, for which they prove ad- 

 mirable test objects, exhibit differences of sculpture; 

 and this, from its various reflection of the rays of light, 

 produces all their diversities of tint. Although the colour 

 of the majority of these insects is usually produced by 

 the scales, yet some of intensely brilliant hues are to- 

 tally without them, as in the genus Eurhinus, where 

 we have greens, blues, and purples the colouring of 

 the integument itself unsurpassed in the whole cir- 

 cle of the Coleoptera : these are smooth insects ; but 

 in Rhyncliites, a softened tone is given to their tints 

 by a multiplicity of minute punctures, whence a 

 lengthy pubescence envelopes the creature. One 

 of the most splendid of the latter is the Rhynchites 

 Bacchus, an insect which has derived its specific name 

 from its attachment to the vine, which unfortunately, 

 however, it "loves to destroy/' for in the vineyards of 

 the Continent it is frequently very detrimental. We 

 are prepared to expect many eccentricities of structure 

 in so large a group of insects, and of which we witness 

 on all sides remarkable exemplifications : the thickened 

 snout of Hipporhinus; the two curved spines of the 

 propectus of Diorymerus, as also its humped thorax ; 

 the remarkable obesity of Guioperus ; the conspicuous 



