MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



181 



by collectors the Lappet-moth, affords an example from the 

 Lepidoptera order of the imitation in question, its wings re- 

 presenting, both in shape and colour, an arid brown leaf. 

 Some bugs, belonging to the genus Dictyonota of Mr. Curtis 

 simulate portions of leaves in a still further state of decay, 

 when the veins only are left ; for, the thorax and elytra of 

 these insects being reticulated, with the little areas or meshes 

 of the net- work transparent, this circumstance gives them 

 exactly the appearance of small fragments of skeletons of 

 leaves. 



But you have probably heard of most of these species of 

 imitation : I hope, therefore, you will give credit to the two 

 instances to which I shall next call your attention, of insects 

 that even mimic flowers and fruit. With respect to the 

 former, I recollect to have seen, in a collection made by Mr. 

 Mason at the Cape of Grood Hope, a species of the orthop- 

 terous genus Pneumora, the elytra of which were of a rose or 

 pink colour, which shrouding its vesiculose abdomen, gave it 

 much the appearance of a fine flower. — A most beautiful 

 and brilliant beetle, of the genus Chlamys ( Ch. Bacca), found 

 by Captain Hancock in Brazil, by the inequalities of its 

 ruby coloured surface, strikingly resembles some kinds of 

 fruit. — And to make the series of imitations complete, a mi- 

 nute black beetle, with ridges upon its elytra ( Onthophilus 

 sulcatus^. when lying without motion, is very like the seed 

 of an umbelliferous plant. The dog-tick is not unlike a small 

 bean; which resemblance has caused a bean, commonly culti- 

 vated as food for horses, to be called the tick-bean. The 

 Palma Christi, also, had probably the name of Ricinns given 

 to it from the similitude of its seed to a tick. 



Another tribe of these little animals, before alluded to, is 

 secured from harm by a different kind of imitation, and affords 

 a beautiful instance of the wisdom of Providence in adapting 

 means to their end. Some singular larvae, with a radiated 

 anus 3 , live in the nests of humble-bees, and are the offspring 

 of a particular genus of flies ( Volucella), many of the species 



i Brit. Ent. t. 154. 2 Oliv. Entomolog. i. no. 8. 17. 



a Latreille, Gen. Crust, et Ins. iv. 322. 



N 3 



