a
bundle of rods about an inch and a half long; and, from the resemblance
of this to a Roman fasces, one African species has obtained the name of
"Lictor." The German entomologists denominated the group _Sacktraeger_,
the Singhalese call them _Dara-kattea_ or "billets of firewood," and
regard the inmates as human beings, who, as a punishment for stealing
wood in some former state of existence, have been condemned to undergo a
metempsychosis under the form of these insects.

[Footnote 1: _Eumeta_, Wlk.]

[Footnote 2: The singular instincts of a species of Thecla, _Dipsas
Isocrates_, Fab., in connection with the fruit of the pomegranate, were
fully described by Mr. Westwood, in a paper read before the
Entomological Society of London in 1835.]

[Illustration: THE WOOD-CARRYING MOTH.]

The male, at the close of the pupal rest, escapes from one end of this
singular covering, but the female makes it her dwelling for life; moving
about with it at pleasure, and entrenching herself within it, when
alarmed, by drawing together the purse-like aperture at the open end. Of
these remarkable creatures there are five ascertained species in Ceylon:
_Psyche Doubledaii_, Westw.; _Metisa plana_; Walker; _Eumeta Cramerii_,
Westw.; _E. Templetonii_, Westw.; and _Cryptothelea consorta_, Temp.

All the other tribes of minute _Lepitoptera_ have abundant
representatives in Ceylon; some of them most attractive from the great
beauty of their markings and colouring. The curious little split-winged
moth (_Pterophorus_) is frequently seen in the cinnamon gardens and in
the vicinity of the fort, hid from the noon-day heat among the cool
grass shaded by the coco-nut topes. Three species have been captured,
all characterised by the same singular feature of having the wings
fan-like, separated nearly their entire length into detached sections,
resembling feathers in the pinions of a bird expanded for flight.

HOMOPTERA. _Cicada._--Of the _Homoptera_, the one which will most
frequently arrest attention is the cicada, which, resting high up on the
bark of a tree, makes the forest re-echo with a long-sustained noise so
curiously resembling that of a cutler's wheel that the creature
producing it has acquired the highly-appropriate name of the
"knife-grinder."

[Illustration: CICADA--"THE KNIFE GRINDER."]

In the jungle which adjoined the grounds attached to my official
residence at Kandy, the shrubs were frequented by an insect covered
profusely w