MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 995 
the poor cockchafer*, whose gyrations and motions, 
when transfixed by a pin, too often form the amusement 
of ill-disciplined children. The threatening horns also, 
prominent eyes, or black and dismal hue of many other 
Coleoptera belonging to the Linnean genera Scarabeus, 
Cicindela, and Carabus, may produce the same effect. 
But the most striking instances of armour are to be 
found in the Hemiptera order amongst the Cicadiade. 
In some of these, the horns that rise from the thorax 
are so singular and monstrous, that nothing parallel to 
them can be found in nature. Of this kind is the C7- 
cada spinosa, Stoll®, the Centrotus clavatus, I'.*, and 
more particularly the Centrotus globularis, I'.*, so re- 
markable for the extraordinary apparatus, of balls and 
spines, which it appears to carry erect, like a standard, 
over its head. What is the precise use of all the varie- 
ties of armour with which these little creatures are fur- 
nished it is not easy to say, but they may probably de- 
fend them from the attack of some enemies. 
Under this head I may mention the long hairs, stiff 
bristles, sharp spines, and hard tubercular prominences 
with which many caterpillars are clothed, bristled, and 
studded. That these are means of defence is rendered 
more probable by the fact that, in several instances, the 
animals so distinguished, at their last moult, previous to 
their assuming the pupa, (in which state they are pro- 
2 One would almost wish that the same superstition prevailed 
here which Sparrman observes is common in Sweden, with respect 
to these animals. ‘Simple people,” says he, “believe that their 
sins will be forgiven if they set a cockchafer on its legs.” 
> Cigales, f. 89. 
eTbid. f. 115. Coquebert, Idlustr. Ic. ii. t. xxviii. f. 9. 
‘Stoll, Cigales, f. 163. Comp. Pallas, Spicil. Zool. t. 1. f. 12. 
VOL. Il. oO 
? 
Voyage, 1, 28. 
