3O2 CARL H. EIGENMANN AND WILLIAM RAY ALLEN. 



be followed, The poison used was the milky sap washed from 

 the pounded roots of cube (or barbasco), a plant cultivated as a 

 fish poison and insecticide wash for cattle. 



"I was beginning to grow impatient at the slowness of the 

 poison, and to wonder if our long wait was going to be useless. 

 I had observed several different species of fishes but they did not 

 seem to be yielding to the usual respiratory difficulties following 

 cw&e-poisoning, nor even to be trying to escape past the seines 

 which we had stretched across the brook above and below. 



"In order to know if there was sufficient current to carry the 

 poison to every part of the pool, I began tossing broken twigs on 

 the water to observe their course with the current. One such 

 twig had reached a standstill, when directly beneath it I saw what 

 was apparently a dead leaf being wafted past the twig. I 

 couldn't understand why the twig was not moving too. At about 

 that moment the leaf moved out into a path of sunlight, and 

 toward the surface. There the resemblance to a fish became 

 apparent, especially to one in search of the same. Its behavior, 

 too, was like that of a poisoned fish struggling for oxygen." 



The outline of the fish is similar to that of an asymmetrical 

 leaf. The erected spinous dorsal and anal with their serrated 

 character are not unlike the toothed edge of a leaf. The mimicry 

 in color and markings is very close, the photograph and drawing 

 of the dead specimens scarcely doing it justice. The lateral band 

 has a position like that of a midrib of an asymmetric leaf. Like 

 a midrib it fades away before reaching the distal margin. A 

 petiole is not lacking, for the sharp, elongated snout and the 

 protractile barbel carry out the resemblance. 



While this fish may fall short of the perfection in mimicry 

 exhibited by Kallima, it does take due account of the fact that 

 few perfect leaves exsist, especially by the time they have reached 

 the water. The transparent dorsal and soft anal between the 

 spinous fins and caudal peduncle resemble breaks in the margin 

 of a leaf. Futhermore the faded and discolored portions of many 

 leaves, due to fungi, have their counterpart in the more ashy 

 triangular area in the forward half of the fish. 



The mimicry of M. mimophyllus has a physiological side. 

 When swimming it moves in a gliding manner (like a seahorse) 



