Part 40 (1/2)

_Acalephae_.--Acalephae[1] are plentiful, so much so, indeed, that they occasionally tempt the larger cetacea into the Gulf of Manaar. In the calmer months of the year, when the sea is gla.s.sy, and for hours together undisturbed by a ripple, the minute descriptions are rendered perceptible by their beautiful prismatic tinting. So great is their transparency that they are only to be distinguished from the water by the return of the reflected light that glances from their delicate and polished surfaces. Less frequently they are traced by the faint hues of their tiny peduncles, arms, or tentaculae; and it has been well observed that they often give the seas in which they abound the appearance of being crowded with flakes of half-melted snow. The larger kinds, when undisturbed in their native haunts, attain to considerable size. A faintly blue medusa, nearly a foot across, may be seen in the Gulf of Manaar, where, no doubt, others of still larger growth are to be found.

[Footnote 1: Jellyfish.]

The remaining orders, including the corals, madrepores, and other polypi, have yet to find a naturalist to undertake their investigation, but in all probability the species are not very numerous.

CHAP. VI

INSECTS.

Owing to the combination of heat, moisture, and vegetation, the myriads of insects in Ceylon form one of the characteristic features of the island. In the solitude of the forests there is a perpetual music from their soothing and melodious hum, which frequently swells to a startling sound as the cicada trills his sonorous drum on the sunny bark of some tall tree. At morning the dew hangs in diamond drops on the threads and gossamer which the spiders suspend across every pathway; and above the pool dragon flies, of more than metallic l.u.s.tre, flash in the early sunbeams. The earth teems with countless ants, which emerge from beneath its surface, or make their devious highways to ascend to their nests in the trees. l.u.s.trous beetles, with their golden elytra, bask on the leaves, whilst minuter species dash through the air in circles, which the ear can follow by the booming of their tiny wings. b.u.t.terflies of large size and gorgeous colouring flutter over the endless expanse of flowers, and frequently the extraordinary sight presents itself of flights of these delicate creatures, generally of a white or pale yellow hue, apparently miles in breadth, and of such prodigious extension as to occupy hours, and even days, uninterruptedly in their pa.s.sage--whence coming no one knows; wither going no one can tell.[1] As day declines, the moths issue from their retreats, the crickets add their shrill voices to swell the din; and when darkness descends, the eye is charmed with the millions of emerald lamps lighted up by the fire-flies amidst the surrounding gloom.

[Footnote 1: The b.u.t.terflies I have seen in these wonderful migrations in Ceylon were mostly _Callidryas Hilariae, C. Alcmeone_, and _C.

Pyranthe_, with straggling individuals of the genus _Euploea, E. Coras_, and _E. Prothoe_. Their pa.s.sage took place in April and May, generally in a north-easterly direction.]

No attempt has as yet been made to describe the cla.s.s systematically, much less to enumerate the prodigious number of species which abound in every locality. Occasional observers have, from time to time, contributed notices of particular families to the Scientific a.s.sociations of Europe, but their papers remain undigested, and the time has not yet arrived for the preparation of an Entomology of the island.

What Darwin remarks of the Coleoptera of Brazil is nearly as applicable to the same order of insects in Ceylon: ”The number of minute and obscurely coloured beetles is exceedingly great; the cabinets of Europe can as yet, with partial exceptions, boast only of the larger species from tropical climates, and it is sufficient to disturb the composure of an entomologist to look forward to the future dimensions of a catalogue with any pretensions to completeness.”[l]

[Footnote 1: _Nat. Journal_, p. 39.]

M. Neitner, a German entomologist, who has spent some years in Ceylon, has recently published, in one of the local periodicals, a series of papers on the Coleoptera of the island, in which every species introduced is stated to be previously undescribed.[1]

[Footnote 1: Republished in the _Ann. Nat. Hist_.]

COLEOPTERA.--_Buprestidoe; Golden Beetles_.--In the morning the herbaceous plants, especially on the eastern side of the island, are studded with these gorgeous beetles whose golden elytra[1] are used to enrich the embroidery of the Indian zenana, whilst the l.u.s.trous joints of the legs are strung on silken threads, and form necklaces and bracelets of singular brilliancy.

[Footnote 1: _Sternocera Chrysis; S. sternicornis_.]

These exquisite colours are not confined to one order, and some of the Elateridae[1] and Lamellicorns exhibit hues of green and blue, that rival the deepest tints of the emerald and sapphire.

[Footnote 1: Of the family of _Elateridae_, one of the finest is a Singhalese species, the _Compsosternus Templetonii_, of an exquisite golden green colour, with blue reflections (described and figured by Mr.

WESTWOOD in his _Cabinet of Oriental Entomology_, pl. 35, f. 1). In the same work is figured another species of large size, also from Ceylon, this is the _Alaus sordidus_.--WESTWOOD, 1. c. pl. 35, f. 9.]

_Scavenger Beetles_.--Scavenger beetles[1] are to be seen wherever the presence of putrescent and offensive matter affords opportunity for the display of their repulsive but most curious instincts; fastening on it with eagerness, severing it into lumps proportionate to their strength, and rolling it along in search of some place sufficiently soft in which to bury it, after having deposited their eggs in the centre. I had frequent opportunities, especially in traversing the sandy jungles in the level plains to the north of the island, of observing the unfailing appearance of these creatures instantly on the dropping of horse dung, or any other substance suitable for their purpose; although not one was visible but a moment before. Their approach through the air is announced by a loud and joyous booming sound, as they dash in rapid circles in search of the desired object, led by their sense of smell, but evidently little a.s.sisted by the eye in shaping their course towards it. In these excursions they exhibit a strength of wing and sustained power of flight, such as is possessed by no other cla.s.s of beetles with which I am acquainted, but which is obviously indispensable for the due performance of the useful functions they discharge.

[Footnote 1: _Ateuchus sacer; Copris sagax; C. capucinus_, &c. &c.]

_The Coco-nut Beetle._--In the luxuriant forests of Ceylon, the extensive family of Longicorns live in destructive abundance. Their ravages are painfully familiar to the coco-nut planters.[1] The larva of one species of large dimensions, _Batocera rubus_[2], called by the Singhalese ”_Cooroominya_” makes its way into the stems of the younger trees, and after perforating them in all directions, it forms a coc.o.o.n of the gnawed wood and sawdust, in which it reposes during its sleep as a pupa, till the arrival of the period when it emerges as a perfect beetle. Notwithstanding the repulsive aspect of the large pulpy larvae of these beetles, they are esteemed a luxury by the Malabar coolies, who so far avail themselves of the privilege accorded by the Levitical law, which permitted the Hebrews to eat ”the beetle after his kind.”[3]

[Footnote 1: There is a paper in the _Journ. of the Asiat. Society of Ceylon_, May, 1845, by Mr. CAPPER, on the ravages perpetrated by these beetles. The writer had recently pa.s.sed through several coco-nut plantations, ”varying in extent from 20 to 150 acres, and about two to three years old; and in these he did not discover a single young tree untouched by the cooroominya.”--P. 49.]

[Footnote 2: Called also B. _octo-maculatus; Lamia rubus_, Fabr.]

[Footnote 3: Leviticus, xi. 22.]

_Tortoise Beetles_.--There is one family of insects, the members of which cannot fail to strike the traveller by their singular beauty, the _Ca.s.sidiadae_ or tortoise beetles, in which the outer sh.e.l.l overlaps the body, and the limbs are susceptible of being drawn entirely within it.

The rim is frequently of a different tint from the centre, and one species which I have seen is quite startling from the brilliancy of its colouring, which gives it the appearance of a ruby enclosed in a frame of pearl; but this wonderful effect disappears immediately on the death of the insect.[1]

[Footnote 1: One species, the _Ca.s.sida farinosa_, frequent in the jungle which surrounded my official residence at Kandy, is covered profusely with a snow-white powder, arranged in delicate filaments, which it moves without dispersing: but when dead they fall rapidly to dust.]