All the other tribes of minute Lepitoptera 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 in the vicinity of the fort, hid from the noon-day heat among the cool grass 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.

HOMOPTERA. Cicada.—­Of the Homoptera, 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 producing it has acquired the highly-appropriate name of the “knife-grinder.”

[Illustration:  CICADA—­“THE KNIFE GRINDER.”]

In the jungle which adjoined the grounds attached to my official residence at Kandy, the shrubs were frequented by an insect covered profusely with 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.