




























HEMIPTE RA. 
cenfure, let us attend to the opinion of a few authors, nearly contemporary with himfelf: we find thefe 
collected in the criticifms of Roefel on that paffage. 
From thefe it appears that the works of Pifo were much admired when firft publifhed, but we rely 
lefs implicitly on the information it contains, than his readers in the laft century. Roefel treats his account 
with more than merited feverity; not becaufe he could contradi& the relation of Pifo, but, becaufe he had. 
never obferved the fame circumftance attend the Wandering Leaf, or Mantis Oratoria, in Europe‘. This 
reafoning is neither fo conclufive, or liberal, as we fhould expe& from Roefel; and more efpecially as he 
afterwards defcribes even the firft fymptom of the transformation as related by Pifo. When he {peaks 
of the death of the European fpecies his words are, “ As their diffolution approaches, their green eyes 
become brown, and they unavoidably lofe their fight: they remain a long while on the fame fpot, till at 
laft they fall quite exhaufted and powerlefs, as if afleep.” What is this but fubftantiating part of the evi- 
dence of Pifo, which he has laboured before to difcredit? As to the change after they remained long on 
the ground, fuch as fending forth fibres, roots, and ftems, from the body of the infeét, it is only aftonifhing 
fuch a well-informed naturalift fhould have deemed it matter of furprife. Could he be ignorant of the 
many inftances that occur, of animal fubftances producing plants * ? or was he not informed that the pupa 
which commonly fends forth a bee, a wafp, or cicada, has fometimes become the nidus of a plant, thrown 
up ftems from the fore part of the head, and changed in every refpect into a vegetable, though ftill re- 
taining the fhell and exterior appearance of the parent infe& at the root f? We own at firft fight with 
Roefel that the account of Pifo feems “‘ an inattentive and confounded obfervation,” but that an infe& 
may ftrike root into the earth, and, from the co-operation of heat, and moifture, congenial to vegetation, 
produce a plant of the cryptogamia kind, cannot be difputed. We have feen fpecies of clavaria both of the 
undivided and branched kinds, four times larger than the infe&t from which they fprang; and can we then 
deny that the infect mentioned by Pifo might not produce a plant of a proportionate magnitude? In fhort, 
are we fo well acquainted with the productions of Brafil as to contradié any of his affertions, concerning 
this transformation? Pifo does not fay of what kind this vegetable was; it muft furely be of the fungi 
We quote this part of the poem at length; for as we perufe it, every fucceffive line bears a ftronger fimilitude to the wonderful transformation 
of the Mantis as related by Pifo; we might be almoft tempted to condemn the defcription of the naturalift as a fervile copy of Ovid’s 
verfes, if the fimilar transformation of other infeéts above noticed, had not occurred to the knowledge of every entomologift. 
ro49 
4 Among the annotations on the laft edition of Roefel’s Infe&en Belluftigung we find. one relating to this part of the works of Pifo. 
“ Der feel Her geheime Rath Trew, &c. Counf. Trew affures Mr. Roefel that Pi/o not only very often gave out the credible obfervations 
of others, as his own, but himfelf believed the moft incredible relations, and pretended to be an eye witnefs thereof.’ We quote this in 
juttice to the remarks of Roefel. Note in page 10, feétion Das Wandlende Blat. 
¢ Such as Mucor cruftaceus, &c. 
f Specimens of thefe vegetated animals, are frequently brought from the Weft Indies; we have one of the cicada from the pupa, as 
well as others produced from wafps and bees in the perfect or winged itate. Mr. Drury has a beetle in the perfect ftate, from every part of 
which, fmall ftalks and fibres have fprouted forth; they are very different from the tufts of hair that are obferved on a few coleopterous 
infects, fuch as the Bupreftis fafcicularis, of the Cape of Good Hope; they are certainly a vegetable production. 
