178 EAMBLES OF A NAJTUEALIST. [Ch. XI. 



occur more gregariously, and were often found in abundance 

 upon particular plants. Upon a spreadiug, bushy Labiate 

 could always be taken Cyclopelta obscura; on another, 

 Agonoscelis nubUa, or Migymonum cupreum ; while the 

 curious Anisocelis with leaf-like tarsi, and large species of 

 Mutis, with immense thighs and spiked thorax, could be 

 taken on the wing. But when so taken it was necessary to 

 be careful in handliag and disengaging them, for some of 

 these Hemiptera are provided with a hair-like proboscis at 

 the extremity of their elongated heads, with which they 

 have the power of penetrating the skin and inflicting a 

 painful sting. Such are the species of Sycanus and Eulyes, 

 which I learned by experience to handle as carefully as if 

 they were wasps or bees, although none that I met with 

 were more handsome than Eulyes melanoptera, the wing- 

 like expansions of whose body, as well as the legs, were of a 

 rich crimfeon blotched with jet black. Another verj' beautiful 

 species that may be mentioned as rather common is CaUidra 

 dilaticoHis, with wing-cases of the richest dark green spotted 

 with black ; and several of those I brought home appear to 

 be new to the hemipterist. 



A remarkable and disagreeable circumstance, well known 

 to dwellers in this part of the world, is that the graves of 

 Europeans who have been buried in the island are pretty 

 certain, sooner or later, to be rifled and desecrated by the 

 natives ; not, be it understood, by the Malays proper, but 

 probably by the tribes of the interior. They never meddle 

 with the graves immediately after the interment, and even 

 years may elapse before they ultimately effect an entrance; 

 and when they do so, it is in such a manner that it is very 

 readily overlooked; for they do not roughly uncover the 

 grave, but having made a small and inconspicuous aperture, 



