ith a snow-white powder, arranged in delicate filaments that
curl like a head of dressed celery. These it moves without dispersing
the powder: but when dead they fall rapidly to dust. I regret that I did
not preserve specimens, but I have reason to think that they are the
larvae of the _Flata limbata_, or of some other closely allied
species[1], though I have not seen in Ceylon any of the wax produced by
the _flata_.

[Footnote 1: Amongst the specimens of this order which I brought from
Ceylon, two proved to be new and undescribed, and have been named by Mr.
A. WHITE _Elidiptera Emersoniana_ and _Poeciloptera Tennentina_.]

HEMIPTERA. _Bugs_.--On the shrubs in his compound the newly-arrived
traveller will be attracted by an insect of a pale green hue and
delicately-thin configuration, which, resting from its recent flight,
composes its scanty wings, and moves languidly along the leaf. But
experience will teach him to limit his examination to a respectful view
of its attitudes; it is one of a numerous family of bugs, (some of them
most attractive[1] in their colouring,) which are inoffensive if
unmolested, but if touched or irritated, exhale an odour that, once
endured, is never afterwards forgotten.

[Footnote 1: Such as _Cantuo ocellatus, Leptoscelis Marginalis, Callidea
Stockerius_, &c. &c. Of the aquatic species, the gigantic _Belostoma
Indicum_ cannot escape notice, attaining a size of nearly three inches.]

APHANIPTERA. _Fleas_.--Fleas are equally numerous, and may be seen in
myriads in the dust of the streets or skipping in the sunbeams which
fall on the clay floors of the cottages. The dogs, to escape them,
select for their sleeping places spots where a wood fire has been
previously kindled; and here prone on the white ashes, their stomachs
close to the earth, and their hind legs extended behind, they repose in
comparative coolness, and bid defiance to their persecutors.

[Illustration: POECILOPTERA TENNENTINA.]

[Illustration: ELIDIPTERA EMERSONIANA.]

DIPTERA. _Mosquitoes_.--But of all the insect pests that beset an
unseasoned European the most provoking by far is the truculent
mosquito.[1] Next to the torture which it inflicts, its most annoying
peculiarities are the booming hum of its approach, its cunning, its
audacity, and the perseverance with which it renews its attacks however
frequently repulsed. These characteristics are so remarkable as fully to
justify the conjecture that the mosquito, and not