1M THE MOPANE-TREE. Cjiai\ VIII. 



The Mopane-tree (Bauhinia) is remarkable for the little shade 

 its leaves afford. They fold together and stand nearly perpen- 



Mopane or Bauhinia leaves, with the insect and its edible secretions. 



dicular during the heat of the day, so that only the shadow of 

 their edges conies to the ground. On these leaves the small larva? 

 of a winged insect appear covered over with a sweet gummy sub- 

 stance. The people collect this in great quantities, and use it 

 as food ;* and the lopane — large caterpillars three inches long, 

 which feed on the leaves, and are seen strung together — share 

 the same fate. 



* I am favoured with Mr. Westwood's remarks on this insect as follows : — 



" Taylor Institution, Oxford, July 9, 1857. 



" The insect (and its secretion) on the leaves of the Bauhinia, and which is 

 eaten hy the Africans, proves to he a species of Psylla, a genus of small very 

 active Homoptera, of which we have one very common species in the hox ; hut 

 our species, P. huxi, emits its secretion in the shape of very long white cotton- 

 like filaments ; but there is a species in New Holland, found on the leaves of 

 the Eucalyptus, which emits a secretion very similar to that of Dr. Livingstone's 

 species. This Australian secretion (and its insect originator) is known by the 

 name of Wo-me-la, and, like Dr. Livingstone's, it is scraped off the leaves and 

 eaten by the aborigines as a saccharine dainty. The insects found beneath the 

 secretion, brought home by Dr. Livingstone, are in the pupa state, being 

 flattened, with large scales at the sides of the body, enclosing the future wings 

 of the insect. The body is pale yellowish coloured, with dark-brown spots. 

 It will be impossible to describe the species technically until we receive the 

 perfect insect. The secretion itself is flat and circular, apparently deposited 

 in concentric rings, gradually increasing in size till the patches are about a 

 quarter or a third of an inch in diameter. 



" Jno. 0. Westwood." 



