Natural history -- Nicaragua; Nicaragua -- Description and travel
One of these, the lovely little Cosmisoma Titania, Number 7 in
Plate 25, has been appropriately named after the Queen of the
Fairies by Mr. Bates. It was first found by Mr. Janson, junior, who
came out to Chontales purposely to collect insects; and I
afterwards obtained it in great numbers. The use of the curious
brushes on the antennae is not known. Another longicorn, about the
same size (Coremia hirtipes), has its two hindmost legs greatly
lengthened, and furnished with brushes: one I saw on a branch was
flourishing these in the air, and I thought at first they were two
black flies hovering over the branch, my attention being taken from
the body of the beetle by the movement of the brushes.
Another fine longicorn, figured in Plate 25, Deliathis nivea, looks
as if made of pure white porcelain spotted with black. It is a rare
beetle, one or two specimens each season being generally all that
are taken. It is usually found on the leaves of young trees from
twelve to twenty feet from the ground. I have taken the rather
heavy-bodied female by throwing a stone at it and causing it to
fall within reach, but the male is more active on the wing, and it
was long before I obtained a specimen.
(PLATE 26. LEAF INSECT.)
(PLATE 27. MOSS INSECT.)
Amongst the insects of Chontales none are more worthy of notice
than the many curious species of Orthoptera that look like green
and faded leaves of trees. I have already described one species
that resembles a green leaf, and so much so that it even deceived
the acute senses of the foraging ants; other species, belonging to
a closely-related genus (Pterochroza), imitate leaves in every
stage of decay, some being faded-green, blotched with yellow;
others, as in the species figured, resemble a brown withered leaf,
the resemblance being increased by a transparent hole through both
wings that looks like a piece taken out of the leaf. In many
butterflies that resemble leaves on the under side of their wings,
the wings being raised and closed together when at rest so as to
hide the bright colours of the upper surface, there are similar
transparent spots that imitate holes; and others again are jagged
at the edge, as if pieces had been taken out of them. Many
chrysalides also have mirror-like spots that resemble holes; and
one that I found hanging from the under side of a leaf had a real
hole through it, formed by a horn that projected from the thorax
and doubled back to the body, leaving a space between. Another
insect, of which I only found two specimens, had a wonderful
resemblance to a piece of moss, amongst which it concealed itself
in the daytime, and was not to be distinguished except when
accidentally shaken out. It is the larval stage of a species of
Phasma.
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