DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25989#0192
!76 NARRATIVE DURING A TOUfc
than any thing I can compare it to. These in-
sects are found on the branches and leaves of
trees, in which they swarm in millions, and
work and generate this leather-like substance,
till it gets long and drops on the leaves, cakes
on them, and resembling the most beautiful
white bees-wax. This hardens the leaf and
takes the complete form of it, which you can
strike off, bearing the very impression and
imitation of the leaf itself: but what appears
surprizing, they do not seem to eat or destroy
the leaf they swarm on ; and though they have
been some days on the leaves, nothing more
is seen than this waxy substance issuing from
the tail. I have seen a great deal of it about
these hills, and much might be collected were
it desirable.'
"The insect which I have in my possession,
together with the extraordinary swarms of
them, answer exactly to the foregoing descrip-
tion. I have also preserved a leaf of the
tree ; and collected some singularly beautiful
thorns and vegetable excrescences growing from
the branch of a tree which is formed into an
expansion of straw-coloured leaves, about three
feet in circumference, in the centre there is a
complex formation of dried vegetable, inter-
woven with the web of insects, forming a perfect
flower."
than any thing I can compare it to. These in-
sects are found on the branches and leaves of
trees, in which they swarm in millions, and
work and generate this leather-like substance,
till it gets long and drops on the leaves, cakes
on them, and resembling the most beautiful
white bees-wax. This hardens the leaf and
takes the complete form of it, which you can
strike off, bearing the very impression and
imitation of the leaf itself: but what appears
surprizing, they do not seem to eat or destroy
the leaf they swarm on ; and though they have
been some days on the leaves, nothing more
is seen than this waxy substance issuing from
the tail. I have seen a great deal of it about
these hills, and much might be collected were
it desirable.'
"The insect which I have in my possession,
together with the extraordinary swarms of
them, answer exactly to the foregoing descrip-
tion. I have also preserved a leaf of the
tree ; and collected some singularly beautiful
thorns and vegetable excrescences growing from
the branch of a tree which is formed into an
expansion of straw-coloured leaves, about three
feet in circumference, in the centre there is a
complex formation of dried vegetable, inter-
woven with the web of insects, forming a perfect
flower."