Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . ir appear-ance as they were massed to-gether in the box was simplygorgeous. This golden lustre is givenby the hairs with which thewhole body, including the head, is thickly covered. The hairs lievery flat to the body and are nearly parallel, all the points beingdirected baekwards. Even in the imperfect specimens a goodmagnifying glass will, with the assistance of a strong light, bringout the golden lustre which the unaided eye cannot detect. Thewings are yellow, and each of the upper pai
Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . ir appear-ance as they were massed to-gether in the box was simplygorgeous. This golden lustre is givenby the hairs with which thewhole body, including the head, is thickly covered. The hairs lievery flat to the body and are nearly parallel, all the points beingdirected baekwards. Even in the imperfect specimens a goodmagnifying glass will, with the assistance of a strong light, bringout the golden lustre which the unaided eye cannot detect. Thewings are yellow, and each of the upper pair is marked withtwo squared black spots. This insect is exceedingly variablein form. It is never larger than the figure, but is often muchsmaller—some specimens scarcely exceeding the common house-fly in size. In the British Museum the insect appears under the genericname of Para pompilus, Mr. F. Smith having comprised underthat title all the short-winged Pompili. The name Qramsii israther an unfortunate one, because it expresses nothing of thecharacteristics of the insect. The name spedosus had been. Fio. 233.—Pompilns Qravesii(Shining gold.) TWO SPLENDID INSECTS. 453 suggested, but in the meanwhile the insect had been describedunder the name of Gravesii in honour of the name of the cap-tain of the ship in which the insects were brought to England. Before the discovery of the last-mentioned insect, Pompilusnooilis was by far the most beautiful of the family, and, just asthat insect glitters with gold, so does this one shine with good specimen looks, indeed, just as if silver leaf had beenlaid upon it and rubbed smooth with a burnishing tool. Thissilvery gloss is produced by a coating of very fine silvery hairs,set like the pile of velvet, and therefore called pile to distin-guish it from ordinary hair. There is scarcely any insect which shows so plainly the dis-tinction between a specimen in good condition and one that isdamaged or has suffered bycareless handling
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1883
