Part 42 (1/2)

_The Wood-carrying Moth._--There is another family of insects, the singular habits of which will not fail to attract the traveller in the cultivated tracts of Ceylon--these are moths of the genus _Oiketicus_,[1] of which the females are devoid of wings, and some possess no articulated feet; the larvae construct for themselves cases, which they suspend to a branch frequently of the pomegranate,[2]

surrounding them with the stems of leaves, and thorns or pieces of twigs bound together by threads, till the whole presents the appearance of 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 _Sack-trager_, the Singhalese call them _Dalmea kattea_ or ”billets of firewood,” and regard the inmates as human beings, who, as a punishment for stealing wood in some former stage 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.]

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 _Lepidoptera_ 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 the vicinity of the fort, resting in the noonday heat in the cool gra.s.s 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.

h.o.m.oPTERA. _Cicada._--Of the _h.o.m.optera_, 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 which produces it has acquired the highly-appropriate name of the ”knife-grinder.”

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 att.i.tudes; 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 perceived, is never after forgotten.

[Footnote 1: Such as _Cantuo ocellatus, Leptopelis Marginalis, Callidea Stockerius_, &c. &c. Of the aquatic species, the gigantic _Belostoma Indic.u.m_ 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 p.r.o.ne 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.

DIPTERA. _Mosquitoes._--But of all the insect pests that beset an unseasoned European the most provoking by far are the truculent mosquitoes.[1] Even in the midst of endurance from their onslaughts one cannot but be amused by the ingenuity of their movements; as if aware of the risk incident to an open a.s.sault, a favourite mode of attack is, when concealed by a table, to a.s.sail the ankles through the meshes of the blocking, or the knees which are ineffectually protected by a fold of Russian duck. When you are reading, a mosquito will rarely settle on that portion of your hand which is within range of your eyes, but cunningly stealing by the underside of the book fastens on the wrist or finger, and noiselessly inserts his proboscis there. I have tested the cla.s.sical expedient recorded by Herodotus, who states that the fishermen inhabiting the fens of Egypt cover their beds with their nets, knowing that the mosquitoes, although they bite through linen robes, will not venture though a net.[2] But, notwithstanding the opinion of Spence,[3]

that nets with meshes an inch square will effectually exclude them, I have been satisfied by painful experience that (if the theory is not altogether fallacious) at least the modern mosquitoes of Ceylon are uninfluenced by the same considerations which restrained those of the Nile under the successors of Cambyses.

[Footnote 1: _Culex laniger_? Wied. In Kandy Mr. Thwaites finds _C.

fusca.n.u.s, C. circ.u.mvolens_, &c., and one with a most formidable hooked proboscis, to which he has a.s.signed the appropriate name _C. Regius_.]

[Footnote 2: HERODOTUS, _Euterpe_, xcv.]

[Footnote 3: KIRBY and SPENCE'S _Entomology_, letter iv.]

_List of Ceylon Insects._

For the following list of the insects of the island, and the remarks prefixed to it, I am indebted to Mr. F. Walker, by whom it has been prepared after a careful inspection of the collections made by Dr.

Templeton, Mr. E.L. Layard, and others; as well as those in the British Museum and in the Museum of the East India Company.

”A short notice of the aspect of the Island will afford the best means of accounting, in some degree, for its entomological Fauna: first, as it is an island, and has a mountainous central region, the tropical character of its productions, as in most other cases, rather diminishes, and somewhat approaches that of higher lat.i.tudes.

”The coast-region of Ceylon, and fully one-third of its northern part, have a much drier atmosphere than that of the rest of its surface; and their climate and vegetation are nearly similar to those of the Carnatic, with which this island may have been connected at no very remote period.[1] But if, on the contrary, the land in Ceylon is gradually rising, the difference of its Fauna from that of Central Hindostan is less remarkable. The peninsula of the Dekkan might then be conjectured to have been nearly or wholly separated from the central part of Hindostan, and confined to the range of mountains along the eastern coast; the insect-fauna of which is as yet almost unknown, but will probably be found to have more resemblance to that of Ceylon than to the insects of northern and western India--just as the insect-fauna of Malaya appears more to resemble the similar productions of Australasia than those of the more northern continent.

[Footnote 1: On the subject of this conjecture see _ante_, Vol. I. Pt.

I, ch. i. p. 7.]

”Mr. Layard's collection was partly formed in the dry northern province of Ceylon; and among them more Hindostan insects are to be observed than among those collected by Dr. Templeton, and found wholly in the district between Colombo and Kandy. According to this view the faunas of the Neilgherry Mountains, of Central Ceylon, of the peninsula of Malacca, and of Australasia would be found to form one group;--while those of Northern Ceylon, of the western Dekkan, and of the level parts of Central Hindostan would form another of more recent origin. The insect-fauna of the Carnatic is also probably similar to that of the lowlands of Ceylon; but it is still unexplored. The regions of Hindostan in which species have been chiefly collected, such as Bengal, Silhet, and the Punjaub, are at the distance of from 1,300 to 1,600 miles from Ceylon, and therefore the insects of the latter are fully as different from those of the above regions as they are from those of Australasia, to which Ceylon is as near in point of distance, and agrees more with regard to lat.i.tude.

”Dr. Hagen has remarked that he believes the fauna of the mountains of Ceylon to be quite different from that of the plains and of the sh.o.r.es.