rded 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 passed 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
_Cassidiadae_ or tortoise beetles, in which the outer shell 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 _Cassida 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.]

ORTHOPTERA. _The Soothsayer_.--But the admiration of colours is still
less exciting than the astonishment created by the forms in which some
of the insect families present themselves, especially the "soothsayers"
(_Mantidae_) and "walking leaves." The latter[1], exhibiting the most
cunning of all nature's devices for the preservation of her creatures,
are found in the jungle in all varieties of hue, from the pale yellow of
an opening bud to the rich green of the full-blown leaf, and the
withered tint of decaying foliage. And so perfect is the imitation in
structure and articulation, that these amazing insects when at rest are
almost indistinguishable from the verdure around them: not the wings
alone being modelled to resemble ribbed and fibrous follicles, but every
joint of the legs being expanded into a broad plait like a half-opened
leaflet.

[Footnote 1: _Phyllium siccifolium._]

It rests on its abdomen, the legs serving to drag it slowly along, and
thus the flatness of its attitude serve