210 



MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



lives in wet spots where the toad-rush (Juncus bufonius) 

 grows, covers itself with sand ; and another nearly related to it 

 (Chcetophorus cretiferus K.) which frequents chalk, whitens 

 itself all over with that substance. As this animal, when 

 clean, is very black, were it not for this manoeuvre, it would 

 be too conspicuous upon its white territory to have any 

 chance of escape 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, a kind of bug some- 

 times found in houses. When in its two preparatory states, 

 every part of its body, even its legs and antennas, is so co- 

 vered with the dust of apartments, consisting of a mixture of 

 particles of sand, fragments of wool or silk, and similar mat- 

 ters, that the animal at first would be taken for one of the 

 ugliest spiders. This grotesque appearance is aided and in- 

 creased by motions equally awkward and grotesque, upon 

 which I shall enlarge hereafter. If you touch it with a hair- 

 pencil or a feather, this clothing will soon be removed, and 

 you may behold the creature unmasked, and in its proper 

 form. It is an insect of prey ; and amongst other victims 

 will devour its more hateful congener the bed-bug. 1 Its slow 

 movements, combined with its covering, seem to indicate that 

 the object of these manoeuvres is to conceal itself from ob- 

 servation, probably, both of its enemies and of its prey. It 

 is therefore properly noticed under my present head. 



As Hercules, after he had slain the Nemean lion, made 



as Panzer's insect, the reference is now omitted. G. areniferus differs consider- 

 ably from G. pygmceus, as described by Gyllenhal {Insect. Suec. I. iii. 675.) The 

 front is not rugulose, the vertex is channeled, the antenna? shorter than the 

 head ; the prothorax is rather shining, marked anteriorly with several excava- 

 tions, in the middle of which is a channel forming a reversed cross with a trans- 

 verse impression. Mr. West wood remarks that the earth with which this insect 

 is coated cannot be for concealment, as above stated, because it is but rarely found 

 so covered, and only when it has by chance found its way into soft muddy 

 ground. (Mod. Class, of Ins. i. 119.) My own observations, however, lead to 

 the different conclusion given above. I remember as if yesterday, though thirty- 

 six years since, the surprise with which I saw creeping in a moist (but not 

 watery) sand-pit at Elloughton, near Hull, when entomologising, scores of 

 what seemed little moving masses of sand, and my delight on finding the, to me, 

 new and singular insect which was concealed beneath ; and as I afterwards re- 

 peatedly found the same insect in similar situations, invariably coated with sand 

 (not earth), and never without this covering, I cannot think this circumstance 

 iccidental. 



i De Geer, iii. 283. Geoff. Hist. Ins. i. 437. 



