[ 3°3 ] 



THE PARADOXICAL BUG*. 



" That singular insect, the Cimex Paradoxus, 

 which, (says Dr. Sparman,) I have described, and 

 of which I have given a drawing in the Swedish 

 Transactions, I discovered at this place (the Cape of 

 Good Hope) as at noon tide I sought for shelter 

 among the branches of a shrub from the intolerable 

 heat of the sun. Though the air was now extremely 

 still and calm, so as scarcely to have shaken an aspen 

 leaf, yet I thought I saw a little withered, pale, 

 crumpled leaf, eaten as it were by caterpillars;, flitting 

 from the tree. This appeared to me so very extra- 

 ordinary, that I thought it worth while suddenly to 

 quit my verdant bower in order to contemplate it ; 

 and I could scarcely believe my eyes, when I saw a 

 living insect, in shape and colour resemblingthe frag- 

 ment of a withered leaf, with the edges turned up 

 and eaten away, as it were, by caterpillars, and at 

 the same time all over beset with prickles. Nature, 

 by this peculiar form, has certainly extremely well 

 defended, and concealed, as it were in a mask, this 

 insect from birds and its other diminutive foes ; in 

 all probability with a view to its preservation, and 

 to employ it for some important office in the system 

 of her economy ; a system with which we are too 

 little acquainted, in general too little investigate, 

 and, in every part of it, can never sufficiently' ad- 



* Synonyms.— .Cimex paradoxus, Linn. Cmel.— Acantlua para- 

 doxa. Fabricius, 



