THE GENESIS OF SUPERSTITIONS. 5 i 9 



as we call them, which we now interpret as processes of evolution 

 presenting certain definitely-marked stages, are, in the eyes of the 

 primitive man, metamorphoses in the original sense. He accepts them 

 as actual changes of one thing into another thing utterly different. 



How readily the savage confounds these metamorphoses which 

 really occur with metamorphoses apparently like them but impossible, 

 we shall perceive on considering a few cases of mimicry by insects, 

 and the conclusions they lead to. Many caterpillars, beetles, moths, 

 butterflies, simulate the objects by which they are commonly sur- 

 rounded. The Onychocerus scorpio is so exactly like, " in color and 

 rugosity," to a piece of the bark of the particular tree it frequents, 

 " that until it moves it is absolutely invisible : " thus raising the idea 

 that a piece of the bark itself has become alive. Another beetle, 

 Onthophilus sulcatus, is ' : like the seed of an umbelliferous plant ;" 

 another " undistinguishable by the eye from the dung of caterpillars; " 

 some of the Cassidce " resemble glittering dew-drops upon the leaves ; " 

 and there is a weevil so colored and formed that, on rolling itself up, 

 it " becomes a mere oval brownish lump, which it is hopeless to look 

 for among the similarly-colored little stones and earth pellets among 

 which it lies motionless," and out of which it emerges after its fright, 

 as though a pebble had become animated. To these examples given 

 by Mr. Wallace, may be added that of the " walking-stick insects," so 

 called " from their singular resemblance to twigs and branches." 



" Some of these are a foot long and as thick as one's finger, and their 

 whole coloring, form, rugosity, and the arrangement of the head, legs, and an- 

 tennae, are such as to render them absolutely identical in appearace "with dead 

 sticks. They hang loosely about shrubs in the forest, and have the extraordi- 

 nary habit of stretching out their legs unsymmetrically, so as to render the 

 deception more complete." 



What wonderful resemblances exist, and what illusions they may 

 lead to, will be fully perceived by those who have seen, in Mr. Wal- 

 lace's collection of butterflies, the Indian genus Kallirna^ placed amid 

 the objects it simulates. Habitually settling on branches bearing 

 dead leaves, and closing its wings, it then resembles a dead leaf, not 

 only in general shape, color, markings, but in so seating itself that 

 the processes of the lower wings unite to form the representation of a 

 foot-stalk. When it takes flight, the impression produced is that one 

 of the leaves has changed into a butterfly. This impression is greatly 

 strengthened when the creature is caught. On the under side of the 

 closed wings is still clearly marked the midrib, running right across 

 them from foot-stalk to apex ; and here, too, are lateral veins. Nay, 

 this is not all. Mr. Wallace says : 



"We find representations of leaves in every stage of decay, variously 

 blotched and mildewed and pierced with holes, and in many cases irregularly 

 covered with powdery black dots gathered into patches and spots, so closely 

 resembling the various kinds of minute fungi that grow on dead leaves that it is 



