128 
The Naturalist in La Plata. 
they are solitary, and feed on the honey of flowers 
and on fruit, and, besides being furnished with 
stings like other wasps — though their sting is not 
so venomous as in other genera — they also, when 
angry, emit a most abominable odour, and are thus 
doubly protected against their enemies. Their ex- 
cessive tameness, slow flight, and indolent motions 
serve to show that they are not accustomed to be 
interfered with. All these strong-smelling wasps 
have steel-blue or purple bodies, and bright red 
wings. So exactly does the Rhomalea grasshopper 
mimic the Pepris when flying, that I have been 
deceived scores of times. I have even seen it on 
the leaves, and, after it has flown and settled once 
more, I have gone to look at it again, to make sure 
that my eyes had not deceived me. It is curious 
to see how this resemblance has reacted on and 
modified the habits of the grasshopper. It is a 
great flyer, and far more aerial in its habits than 
any other insect I am acquainted with in this 
family, living always in trees, instead of on or near 
the surface of the ground. It is abundant in 
orchards and plantations round Buenos Ayres, 
where its long and peculiarly soft, breezy note may 
be heard all summer. If the ancient Athenians 
possessed so charming an insect as this, their great 
regard for the grasshopper was not strange : I 
only wish, that the Athenians of South America,” 
as my fellow-townsmen sometimes call themselves 
in moments of exaltation, had a feeling of the same 
kind — the regard which does not impale its object 
on a pin— -for the pretty light-hearted songster of 
their groves and gardens. 
