Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . Fig. 389.—Bizarda optima.(Black, crimson, and yellow.) At first sight it seems to be coloured as above, but when a sidelight falls upon it, both pairs of wings are seen to be of themost brilliant metallic blue as far as their centre, the colourbeing quite as splendid as that of any of the Morpho the legs are of the same splendid blue. An allied species,Bizarda clarissima, of Ara, is black and white except the baseof the wings and the whole of the head and body, which are
Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . Fig. 389.—Bizarda optima.(Black, crimson, and yellow.) At first sight it seems to be coloured as above, but when a sidelight falls upon it, both pairs of wings are seen to be of themost brilliant metallic blue as far as their centre, the colourbeing quite as splendid as that of any of the Morpho the legs are of the same splendid blue. An allied species,Bizarda clarissima, of Ara, is black and white except the baseof the wings and the whole of the head and body, which arerich blue-green. 656 INSECTS ARTIOAD. A beautiful Brazilian insect is here given, both of its namesbeing move appropriate than is generally the case. Its colour,though very simple, is very bold, and makes it quite a con-spicuous insect. The only colours are yellow and black, and, asmay be seen by reference to the illustration, are so equallydivided that it is not easy to decide which is the Kio. 300.—Eucyane melaxaotha(Black and yellow.) The generic name Eucyane is formed from two Greek words,one signifying beauty, and the other any dark colour, espe-cially one which has a dash of blue in it. The specific namemclaxantha is also formed from two words signifying black andyellow. For my part I should like to see all generic namesformed from the Greek, and all specific names from the Latin;and in this case the name would have been Eucyane nigrofiava,or Jlavojricta, which would have been a prettier title than mcla-xantha, and quite as descriptive. The insect which is known as Eucyane glanca is a veryremarkable one, on account of the striking variation to which A VARIABLE INSECT 657 it is subject. Of the series of specimens in the British Museum,all but one are coloured as follows :— The ground colour of the wings is black, the basal portionsof both wings being gold-green glossed with blue, the colourschanging their relative positions in a strong light. In thecen
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1883
