Nature and Art, September 1, 18<56.] 
FEARFUL CONTEST IN AN OMNIBUS. 
109 
Lens became silently absorbed in the chances of 
the war. 
“ What does he mean by scale and plate armour 1” 
said Pretty Bonnet, addressing me, while she also 
watched the progress of the combat. 
“The term ‘scale ax'moui',’ I conceive, applies to 
the wings of the moth, which are closely covered 
with a series of overlapping scales, in the manner 
of scale armour ; the wings themselves, when the 
scales are removed, being merely a transparent 
tissue, like a filmy sheet of elastic glass. It is from 
this circumstance that moths have been scientifically 
termed ‘ scaly wings,’ or rather Lepidoptera — a term 
compounded of the Greek lepis, a scale, and pteron, 
a wing. This is a characteristic which the great 
modern naturalist, Linnaeus, seized upon at once as 
one which distinguished them from all other insects ; 
and naturalists devoting themselves to the especial 
study of butterflies and moths are consequently dis- 
tinguished as Lepidopterists, as our friend just now 
called himself. I have no doubt that the small 
mahogany box which he put away so carefully con- 
tains some recently- captured specimens of the moth 
and butterfly tribes. The term ‘ plate armour ’ was, 
no doubt, used by our friend in reference to the 
solid cuirass-like armour in which the body of the 
beetle is encased \ a feature in the organization of 
that class of insects which Aristotle, the first and 
greatest of naturalists among the ancients, at once 
seized upon as a well-marked class distinction, and 
named the class of insects so organized Coleoptera, 
from coleos, a case or sheath, and pteron , a wing — in 
allusion to the casing of the wings by those solid 
pieces of true ] date armour ; and the term thus in- 
vented and applied more than two thousand years 
ago, is the one still used to denote that class of 
insects.” 
“ How very curious,” said Pretty Bonnet. “Are 
there any books about that ?” 
“ Hundreds,” said I. 
‘ ‘ How very odd that I should never have met 
with them.” 
“ Not at all, madam,” interrupted Lens. “ Ladies 
look upon the grubs and caterpillars from which all 
moths and beetles are developed merely in the light 
of nasty, dirty, disagreeable, disgusting things ; and 
therefore they are not at all likely to inquire for 
books about them but see ! see ! the dreadful 
beetle, in his irresistible cuirass, is uppermost ; my 
brave little Chilo must perish ; — yet, no ! no !” 
Plere the omnibus gave a lurch, which greatly 
assisted Chilo, who, making the best use of the 
opportunity, darted his sharp, long palpi into a 
joint of the armour between the back plate and the 
wing-cases. 
“He has got him round the waist,” cried Lens. 
“ Plucky little Chilo ! he has got him at the in- 
secture !” 
“What does he mean by the insecture V’ said 
Pretty Bonnet. 
“ Our friend refers,” I said, “to that deep insection 
in the form of all creatures of that class which 
separates the thorax, or chest, from the abdomen. 
The very term insect is founded upon that insection, 
and is simply an abbreviation of the Latin insectus. 
The wasp, as you must have noticed, is so deeply 
insected — or, as you would say, has so slender a 
waist — that the two portions of the body are appa- 
rently only joined by a slender ligament. The 
term ‘ entomology,’ or ‘ insect science,’ is founded 
upon a Greek term of precisely the same import, 
entos, which, equally with the Latin insectus, means 
cut in, or insected, as all true insects are. But only 
look ! how furiously they fight while the omnibus 
is going over these rough stones, positively leaping 
and plunging at each other like miniature war- 
horses ; only I fear the beetle is getting the best of it, 
and taking a savage advantage of the opportunity.” 
“ Oh, do separate them,” cried Pretty Bonnet ; 
“the beetle will kill the brave little moth.” 
“ No, no,” I interposed, “ I am not so sure of 
that ; and, then, it is of no use — they had better 
fight it out. But I do not wonder at your sympathy 
for the moth. One associates the whole moth and 
butterfly tribe with ideas of innocence and beauty 
and sweetness, and the sipping of honey through the 
fine-drawn tube of their delicate proboscis, from the 
nectaries of beautiful summer flowers ; while beetles, 
so often black and sinister in their aspect, are more 
often things of prey, capturing and devouring other 
insect creatures — the burying-beetles, for instance, 
that carry off either dead or living insects into their 
burrows, to feed their young ; especially one of 
the genus Silpha, which feeds on the living larvae 
of moths and butterflies, climbing after them into 
their seemingly safe retreats among the foliage of 
high trees. Then there is the Cicindila campestris, 
commonly known as the tiger-beetle, from its car- 
nivorous nature, preying, as it does, upon other 
insects, and occasionally upon its own species. It 
is as beautiful and as treacherous as the tiger whose 
name it has borrowed.” 
“ Horrid wretch !” exclaimed Pretty Bonnet. 
“ But it is in its larva or grub state that its 
tigerish ti-eachery comes out most strongly. It 
makes a deep and narrow perpendicular pit, or 
mine, and then, climbing to the top, stops up the 
opening with its own flat-topped head, covered with 
sand, waiting till some unsuspecting insect passes 
over this treacherous living trap-door, when it at 
once lets itself drop, followed of course by the 
wretched victim ; and, if the creature so trapped in 
the perfidious oubliette be too large to fall freely, it 
is seized and dragged mercilessly down to the bottom 
of the dark cavern, where ” 
“ How very frightful !” cried Pretty Bonnet, with 
a soft, sympathising expression, like the glance of 
“woman pleading for the vanquished” in Etty’s 
famous picture. “ But, there ! oh, there,” she cried, 
“ the moth has the best of it again. Did you see 
that blow with its little wing ? It positively struck 
the beetle down ; and it seems, too, to have wound 
its delicate trunk, like a tight wire, round the 
beetle’s throat.” 
“ True, true,” said Lens ; “ that wing-blow has 
won the battle. The wing is the most potent 
weapon of many creatures : a swan has been known 
to break a man’s arm with a wing-blow. And then, 
