
HEMIPTERA. 113 
breadth as the head, and presents above a very great gibbosity. The 
antenne are short, with a second globulous articulation, and a 
small terminal hair. The species represented in Fig. 83 is yellow, 
varied with black. The elytra are of a greenish yellow, sprinkled 
with black ; the wings, of the same colour, have at the extremity 
a large spot resembling an eye, which is surrounded by a 
brown circle, very broad in front. It inhabits Guyana. This 
‘remarkable insect enjoys a. great renown with the vulgar, by a 
peculiarity which may be called its speciality—the property of 
shining by night or in the dark. Hence its name of Fulyora 
laternaria. 
The knowledge of the Fulgora laternaria has been spread and 
popularised in Europe by a celebrated book, which has for its title, 
“Metamorphoses des Insectes de Surinam.” This book, which 
contains the result of patient study of the natural history of 
Dutch Guyana (Government of Surinam), was written and pub- 
lished in three languages, by a woman whose name this work has 
rendered immortal—Mlle. Sybille de Mérian, and who won the 
admiration and respect of her contemporaries by her love of the 
beauties of nature, and her perseverance in making them known 
and admired. Sybille de Mérian was born at Bale. Daughter, 
sister, and mother of celebrated engravers, herself an excellent 
flower-painter, she had worked a long time at Frankfort and 
at Nuremburg; and had read with the greatest attention the 
“Théologie des Insectes,”* and with admiration Malpighi’s book 
m the silkworm. Full of enthusiasm for the study of natural his- 
ory, she left Germany, to visit the magnificent collection of plants 
which were kept in the hot-houses of Holland, and made admirable 
‘eproductions of them with her pencil. 
This attentive study of the vegetable world suggested to her the 
dea, which soon became an ardent desire, of observing these 
narvels of nature in those parts of the globe in which they display 
‘themselves with the greatest magnificence and splendour. At the 
ge of fifty-four, Sybille de Mérian set out for equatorial America. 
?rom the very first days of her arrival she hazarded her life, some- 
imes without a guide, in the swampy plains or burning valleys of 
* “Théologie des Insectes, ou Demonstration des Perfections de Dieu dans tout ce 
ui concerne les Insectes, par Lesser, traduit en francais.” La Haye, 1742. 
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