Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . egs can beeasily folded closely to the body, but a head with a long project- 220 INSECTS ABROAD. ing beak is not so easily hidden. If, however, the head becapable of being bent downwards, and there is a deep groove orchannel on the under surface of the thorax into which the beak-fits, it will be seen that the insect lias only to gather its legsclosely to its body, and to bend the head well under the thorax,to be transformed in one moment from a long-legged, long-nosedBeetle, into the sim
Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . egs can beeasily folded closely to the body, but a head with a long project- 220 INSECTS ABROAD. ing beak is not so easily hidden. If, however, the head becapable of being bent downwards, and there is a deep groove orchannel on the under surface of the thorax into which the beak-fits, it will be seen that the insect lias only to gather its legsclosely to its body, and to bend the head well under the thorax,to be transformed in one moment from a long-legged, long-nosedBeetle, into the similitude of a round pebble or a casually fallenseed. One of our best-known species, Orobites eyaneits, looks,when thus packed up, so like the little black seed of the wildhyacinth, that even a practised entomologist cannot detect itwithout a close examination. We can only take one example of this family, namely, Cratoso-7,ins Boddami, a native of Brazil. As is the case with severalof our own Cryptorhynehitke, the colours of this species are soarranged that the insect must be very difficult of fcio. Iu7.—Cratosomus Kuddatni.(Yellow, with block spots.) The head is nearly black, and is furnished with a rather longand curved rostrum, the eyes being at the base, and the antenna-set at about the middle. The front of the thorax has a coatingof warm down, and the rest is grey, diversified by round spotsof jetty black. The elytra are warm yellow and deeply the striae are numbers of oval black spots, which, like thoseof the thorax, look exactly as if they were drops of thick blackink or paint that had been suffered to dry, and in consequenceproject slightly from the surface of the insect. There is anarrow white edge to the elytra. The legs are black, and have a number of greenish scalesscattered over them. The third joint of the tarsus is spread SCALES AND HAIRS. 221 into two very wide lobes, and is covered with a dense coating ofthick, brash-like hairs. Beneath,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1883
