H E M I P TE R A.
An erroneous opinion has prevailed pretty generally among nalnralifts refpecting the colour of this
in fed , which when living they conceived to be fimilar to that o f a dried, or withered leaf. This, it may
be oblerved, is commonly the appearance of the infedt after d e a th ; fuch was no doubt the colour o f the
fpecimens delineated by Koefelj nor can we. for a moment hefitate in believing that the in fe r s defcribed
by the accurate Lmnaus and Dr. Shaw e.xhibited the like appearance. The fpecimen of the winged in fcd
in our cabinet has been preferved however with more than ufual care. Immediately afte r the death of
the creature, as we have reafon to fnfpea, the abdomen had been opened, and fo nicely excavated that
no portion o f the entrails, or oily fluids, which would have inevitably deftroyed the true colour, was
allowed to remain. The natural colour is therefore preferved, which is not of a pale brown as is commonly
imagined, but oi a delicate, lovely green ; a colour dependant, it appears, upon a thin internal coating immediately
beneath the outer Ikin, the latter of which is perfeDly tranfparent and deflitute of any colour.
'Ih e pupa o f this curious fpecies is reprefented, together with the perfect in fe a , on the Finca Rofea.
There is alfo a much fmaller pupa depiffed in the upper part o f the plate, that was difcovered in one o f
the iflands in the Indian feas, and did belong to tbe celebrated Mr. Bailey, the astronomer who sailed in
one o f the expeditions with Captain Cook. This is o f an analogous kind to that o f that Mantis ficcifolia,
though evidently diflina. The p erfea in fe a , and in confequence the fpecies, is unknown to us. Our
only motive for mferting it is to fliew the peculiar fingularity o f the abdomen, in tbe middle o f which there
are two remarkable fubquadrangular fpots, of a filmy texture, that are tranfparent, and m a r be feen
through very diftinaiy.