At Rio Janeiro, the brilliant Diamond-beetle, _Eutimis nobilis_, is in great request for brooches for gentlemen, and ten piasters are often paid for a single specimen. In this city many owners send their slaves out to catch insects, so that now the rarest and most brilliant species are to be had at a comparatively trifling sum. Each of these slaves, when he has attained to some adroitness in this operation, may, on a fine day, catch in the vicinity of the city as many as five or six hundred beetles. So this trade is considered there very lucrative, since six milresis (four rix dollars, or about fourteen shillings) are paid for the hundred. For these splendid insects there is a general demand; and their wing-cases are now sought for the purpose of adorning the ladies of Europe--a fashion, it is said, which threatens the entire extinction of this beautiful tribe.[210] Messrs. Kidder and Fletcher tell us that in Brazil “a commerce is carried on in artificial flowers made from beetles’ wings, fish-scales, sea-shells, and feathers, which attract the attention of every visitor. These are made,” they continue, “by the _mulheres_ (women) of almost every class, and thus they obtain not only pin-money, but some amass wealth in the traffic.”[211] Among the beetles referred to by these gentlemen may be placed no doubt the _Eutimis nobilis_. Among the largest of the species of this family is the Palm-weevil, _Calandra palmarum_, which is of an uniform black color, and measures more than two inches in length. Its larva, called the _Grou-grou_,[212] or Cabbage-tree worm, which is very large, white, of an oval shape, resides in the tenderest part of the smaller palm-trees, and is considered, fried or broiled, as one of the greatest dainties in the West Indies. “The tree,” says Madame Merian, “grows to the height of a man, and is cut off when it begins to be tender, is cooked like a cauliflower, and tastes better than an artichoke. In the middle of these trees live innumerable quantities of worms, which at first are as small as a maggot in a nut, but afterward grow to a very large size, and feed on the marrow of the tree. These worms are laid on the coals to roast, and are considered as a highly agreeable food.”[213] Capt. Stedman tells us these larvæ are a delicious treat to many people, and that they are regularly sold at Paramaribo. He mentions, too, the manner of dressing them, which is by frying them in a pan with a very little butter and salt, or spitting them on a wooden skewer; and, that thus prepared, in taste they partake of all the spices of India--mace, cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, etc.[214] This gentleman also says he once found concealed near the trunk of an old tree a “case-bottle filled with excellent butter,” which the rangers told him the natives made by melting and clarifying the fat of this larva.[215] Dr. Winterbottom states this grub is served up at all the luxurious tables of West Indian epicures, particularly of