258 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 
(Limnius e@neus Mill., Elmis Latr.) that is found in ri- 
vulets under stones and the like, sometimes conceals its 
elytra with a thick coating of mud, that becomes nearly 
as hard as stone. I never met with these animals so cir- 
cumstanced but once; then, however, there were several 
which had thus defended themselves, and I can now 
show you a specimen.— We have two species of a minute 
coleopterous genus (Georyssus) lately established, one of 
which, (G. arenifera K., Trox dubius Panzer,) living in 
wet spots where the toad-rush (Juncus bufonius, L.) grows, 
covers itself with sand; and another (G. cretifera, K.) 
which frequents chalk, whitens itself all over with that 
substance*. As this animal, when clean, is very black, 
were it not for this manceuvre, it would be too conspi- 
cuous upon its white territory to have any chance of es- 
cape from the birds and its other assailants.— No insect 
is more celebrated for rendering itself hideous by a coat 
of dirt than the Reduvius personatus, F., a kind of bug 
sometimes found in houses. When in its two prepara- 
tory states, every part of its body, even its legs and an- 
tennee, is so covered with the dust of apartments, con- 
sisting of a mixture of particles of sand, fragments of 
wool or silk, and similar. matters, that the animal at first 
would be taken for one of the ugliest spiders. This ero- 
tesque appearance is aided and increased by motions 
equally awkward and grotesque, upon which I shall en- 
large hereafter. Ifyou touch it with a hair-pencil or a 
* A subsequent examination ascertains that these two insects be- 
long to different genera not at present quite determined. The latter, 
of which I knew two species, I call Chetophora, from the scattered 
bristles with which both are covered. 
