eeding.

LANTERN-FLY.

There is a large and beautiful insect, with an enormous transparent
prolongation of the forehead, which is supposed to have a resemblance to
a lantern: it is called the lantern-fly (Fulgora laternaria). Though
often described as possessing luminous properties, it is now known to be
destitute of any phosphorescence whatever.

THE TANANA.

[Chlorocelus tanana.]

Often through the woods a loud, sharp, resonant stridulation is heard,
sounding like the syllables "Ta, na, na," succeeding each other with
little intermission. It is produced by a species of wood cricket,
called by the natives after the sound it produces. The total length of
the body is two inches and a quarter when the wings are closed. The
insect has an inflated bladder-like shape, owing to the great convexity
of the thin, firm, parchmenty wing-cases; the little creature being of a
pale green colour. The instrument by which it produces its music is
contrived out of the ordinary nervures of the wing-case. In each
wing-case the under edge of the wing itself has a horny lobe. On one
wing this lobe has a sharp raised margin, on the other the strong
membrane which traverses it on the under side is crossed by a number of
fine and sharp furrows like those of a file. When the insect rapidly
moves its wings, the file of the one lobe is scraped sharply across the
horny margin of the other, thus producing the sounds; the parchmenty
wing-cases and the hollow drum-like space they enclose assisting to give
resonance to the tones. These notes are the call notes of the males,
inviting a mate to his burrow. [Bates.]

WOOD BEETLES.

Enormous as are the trees of the Amazonian forests, and able to
withstand the fiercest storms, they have frequently to succumb to the
attacks of minute insects. Many a monarch of the woods has been brought
low by the efforts of the persevering termites; but they have other
enemies. The palm-trees are assailed by a group of beetles (the
Histeridae) which take possession of the moist interior of their stems.
One of these is an enormous fellow--the hister maximus. Another group
have their bodies as thin as wafers, to enable them to live in the
narrow crevices of the bark. One set of species, however (the
trypanaeus), are totally different, being cylindrical in shape. They
drill holes in the solid wood, and look like tiny animated gimlets when
seen at work; their pointed heads being fixed in the wood, while