A YOUyC NATURALIST. 229 



" They are not flies, but coleoptera, allied to the Carabus family. 

 Give me your net." 



Lucien was anxious to obtain one of them, and at length was 

 successful. He was delighted with the beautiful metallic colour 

 of their brown elytra, dotted over with yellow spots; but the 

 insects, after having bitten him, escaped. 



" What jaws they have," he said, shaking his fingers ; "it 's a 

 good thing those creatures are very small. Do cicindelas live in 

 woods?" 



" They prefer dry, sandy places, and can run and fly very 

 swiftly. This insect has an uncommonly voracious appetite ;' 

 look at this one which has just seized an immense fly, and is 

 trying to tear it in pieces." 



The capricious flight of a stag-beetle led us to the edge of the 

 ravine; and, continuing to follow a zig-zag path, shaded with 

 shrubs, we came out in front of a hut. On the threshold there 

 was a young woman, spinning a piece of cotton cloth, whom I 

 recognised. as one of the dancer? of the night before. The loom, 

 which held the weft, was fastened at one end to the trunk of a 

 tree, the other being wound round the waste of the weaver. 

 Lucien examined it with great curiosity, and when he saw the 

 weaver change the colour of her threads, he understood how the 

 Indian women covered the bottom of their petticoats with those 

 extraordinary patterns which their fancy produces. 



Within a short distance of the hut there were some nopal 

 cactus plants. 



" Look at these plants," said I, addressing Lucien ; " the sight 

 of them would probably affect I'Encuerado to tears, for they are 

 principally cultivated in his native land. The numerous brown 

 spots which you can see on their stalks are hemipterous insects, 

 commonly called cochineal. They have no wings, and feed en- 

 tirely on this cactus, sucking out its sap with their proboscis. 

 The male only is capable of movement ; the female is doomed to 

 die where she is born. At a certain time, these little insects 

 lay thousands of eggs, and their bodies become covered with a 

 cottony moss, which is intended as a shelter for their young. 

 The cochineal is gathered when, to use the Indian expression. 



