File:Insects abroad - being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations (1883) (14763139614).jpg

Identifier: insectsabroadbe00wood (find matches)
Title: Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Wood, J. G. (John George), 1827-1889 Metcalf Collection (North Carolina State University). NCRS
Subjects: Insects
Publisher: London : Longmans, Green, and Co
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
esent known of these long-hornedWeevils is that which is represented in the illustration on thenext page, and known by the name of Xenocerns lineatus. LONU-llOUNED WEEVILS. 197 The former of the two names seems to have been composedmuch as Dickens author composed his work on Chinese meta-physics, by taking a cyclopedia and reading the article Chinaunder the letter C, JNIetaphysics under the letter JI/, and com-bining his information. The author has evidently got hold of anEnglish-Greek lexicon, and, wanting an equivalent for strange-horned, looked for the word strange, or stranger, under theletter ^, and found Xenos. Then he looked for horn underthe letter H, and found Kcras. Then, by combining his in-formation, he formed the word Xenoccrvs, not in the leastseeing that Xenos signifies a stranger, i.e. a guest, or astranger in the house, and has nothing to do with the wordstrange in the sense of exceptional or wonderful, thatbeing evidently the meaning which the writer meant to convey.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 94.—Xenocenis lineatns.(Brown, with while stripes,) The insect which is now before us comes from the AruIslands, and is one of the many beautiful species which havebeen brought to England by )\Ir. Wallace. The antennae of themale are of extraordinary length, and are extraordinarily slenderexcept for the first two or tliree joints. The colour of theantennae is black, except the first or basal half of the fiftli joint,which is white. They are arranged much in the same mannerin every specimen. The first joint is short, stout, and rounded.The next is long, and has a slight and somewhat variable doublecurvature. The third is very short; and the fourth is the longestof all the joints. Then comes the fifth joint, which is slender,short, and has the basal half white; and the rest of the jointsare nearly equal in length and very delicate, no thicker, indeed,than an ordinary horse-hair. 198 INSECTS ABKOAD. As is the case with many insects, the antennae of the femaleare very much shorter

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