A QUEER LITTLE FAMILY ON THE BITTERSWEET 9I 



But the little harlequin is as wary a bird as he 

 was a thorn ! No sooner do we touch his head 

 with our finger than with an audible " click " he is 

 off on a most agile jump, which he extends with 

 buzzing wings, and is even now perhaps aping a 

 thorn among a little group of his fellows some- 

 where among the larger bittersweet branches. 



It is only as we capture one of the little pro- 

 tean acrobats between our finger-tips and ex- 

 amine him with a magnifier that we can really 

 make " head or tail " of his queer anatomy. Even 

 thus enlarged it is difficult to get entirely rid of 

 the idea of a bii^d. I have shown a group of the 

 insects in various attitudes, the position of the 

 eyes alone serving as a starting-point for our 

 comprehension of his singular make-up. The tall 

 neck-like or thorn-like prominence is then seen to 

 be a mere elongated helmet, which is prolonged 

 into a steep angle behind, so as to cover the back 

 of the creature like a peaked roof, a feature from 

 which the scientific name of this particular group 

 of insects is derived, Membracis, meaning sharp- 

 edged, the sides of the slope being covered by the 

 close-fitting wings, which, though apparently com- 

 pact with the body of the insect, are nevertheless 

 always available for instant and most agile flight. 

 We now discover two pairs of stout legs just be- 



