DESCENT TO PARA 



233 



bodies being studded with tubercles. They look like 

 anything rather than insects ; some of them are an exact 

 imitation of the dung of caterpillars on leaves ; others 

 have a deceptive likeness to small flower-buds, galls, and 

 other vegetable excrescences, whilst some large kinds are 

 like fragments of metallic ore. They are very sluggish 

 in their motions, and live in the most exposed situations 

 on the surface of leaves ; their curious shapes are theie- 

 fore no doubt so many disguises to protect them fiom 

 the keen eyes of insectivorous birds and lizards. A nearly 

 allied group, the Lamprosomas, of which several species 

 occurred in the same places, have perfectly smooth con- 

 vex bodies ; these glitter like precious stones on the 

 foliage, and seem to be protected by the excessive hard- 

 ness of their integuments. The Eumolpidae and Galeru- 

 cidae, two groups also belonging to the leaf-eating family, 

 were much more numerous than the Chlamydes and 

 Lamprosomas, although having neither the disguised ap- 

 pearance of the one nor the hard integuments of the other ; 

 but many of them secrete a foul liquor when handled, 

 which may perhaps serve the same purpose of passive 

 defence. The Chlamydes are almost confined to the 

 warmer parts of America, and the species, although ex- 

 tremely numerous (about 300 are known in collections), 

 are nearly all very rare. It is worthy of note that mimick- 

 ing insects are very generally of great scarcity ; that is, 

 few examples of each species occur in the places where 

 they are found, and they constitute groups which are 

 remarkable for the strongly-marked diversity and limited 

 ranges of their species. 



After we had rested some weeks in Barra, we arranged 

 our plans for further explorations in the interior of the 

 country. Mr. Wallace chose the Rio Negro for his next 

 trip, and I agreed to take the Solimoens. My colleague 

 has already given to the world an account of his journey 

 on the Rio Negro, and his adventurous ascent of its great 

 tributary the Uapes. I left Barra for Ega, the first town 

 of any importance on the Solimoens, on the 26th of 

 March, 1850, The distance is nearly 400 miles, which 

 we accomplished in a small cuberta, manned by ten stout 

 Cucama Indians, in thirty-five days. On this occasion, 

 I spent twelve months in the upper region of the Amazons ; 

 circumstances then compelled me to return to Para. I 

 revisited the same country in 1855, and devoted three 



