128 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



they are solitary, and feed on the honey of flowers 

 and on fruit, and, besides being furnished with 

 stings like other wasps — though their sting is not 

 so venomous as in other genera — they also, when 

 angry, emit a most abominable odour, and are thus 

 doubly protected against their enemies. Their ex- 

 cessive tameness, slow flight, and indolent motions 

 serve to show that they are not accustomed to be 

 interfered with. All these strong-smelling wasps 

 have steel-blue or purple bodies, and bright red 

 wings. So exactly does the Rhomalea grasshopper 

 mimic the Pepris when flying, that I have been 

 deceived scores of times. I have even seen it on 

 the leaves, and, after it has flown and settled once 

 more, I have gone to look at it again, to make sure 

 that my eyes had not deceived me. It is curious 

 to see how this resemblance has reacted on and 

 modified the habits of the grasshopper. It is a 

 great flyer, and far more aerial in its habits than 

 any other insect I am acquainted wibh in this 

 family, living always in trees, instead of on or near 

 the surface of the ground. It is abundant in 

 orchards and plantations round Buenos Ayres, 

 where its long and peculiarly soft, breezy note may 

 be heard all summer. If the ancient Athenians 

 possessed so charming an insect as this, their great 

 regard for the grasshopper was not strange : I 

 only wish that the " Athenians of South America," 

 as my fellow-townsmen sometimes call themselves 

 in moments of exaltation, had a feeling of the same 

 kind — the regard which does not impale its object 

 on a pin — for the pretty light-hearted songster of 

 their groves and gardens. 



