196 HARDWICKE'S SCIEN.CE-GO S S IP. 



[Sept 1, 1867. 



Fig. 196. Indian Butterflies at rest. 



apparently in a very conspicuous situation, a few 

 yards off, but on crawling carefully up to the spot 

 have been quite unable to detect any living thing. 

 Sometimes, while gazing intently, a butterfly would 

 start out from just before my eyes, and again enter 

 another dead bush a few yards off, again to be lost 

 in the same manner. Once or twice only was I able 

 to detect it sitting, and admire the wonderful dis- 

 guise which a most strange combination of colour, 

 form, and habits enabled it instantaneously to assume. 

 But there is yet another peculiarity which adds to 

 the concealment of this species. Scarcely two of the 

 specimens are alike in colour on the under side, 

 but vary through all the shades of pale buff, yellow, 

 brown, and deep rusty orange which dried leaves 

 assume. Others are speckled over with little black 

 dots like mildewed leaves, or have clusters of spots 

 or irregular blotches, like the minute fungi that 

 attack dead leaves ; so that a dozen of these insects 

 might settle on a perfectly bare spray, and clothe it 

 at once with withered foliage not distinguishable 

 from that of the surrounding branches ! 



The protection derived from a vegetable disguise 

 is not confined to the perfect Lepidoptera, but 

 is often equally remarkable in their larvse. The 



caterpillar of a European moth that feeds on the 

 privet (Hadenaligustri) is so exactly the colour of the 

 under side of the leaf, on which it sits in the day- 

 time, that you may have the leaf in your hand and 

 yet not discover it. In the caterpillars of the 

 Geometrician, form, colour, and habit combine to 

 disguise many of the species. Those of the Brim- 

 stone and Swallow-tail moths may be taken as 

 examples. They have the habit of stretching them- 

 selves out obliquely when in repose, attached only 

 by the clasping legs at the further extremity, and will 

 remain stiff and motionless in this position for hours. 

 The little protuberances on the body, their colour 

 and attitude, give them so exactly the appearance of 

 twigs of the living tree, that we may easily conceive 

 the advantage this disguise must be to them ; for 

 it is certain that many will escape destruction 

 when more conspicuous insects will be devoured. 



Among the extensive group of the Coleoptera, the 

 examples of a protective disguise are literally innu- 

 merable. In the tropics, every fallen tree swarms 

 with beetles, and a large number of these so closely 

 resemble the bark to which they cling, that it 

 requires a close examination to detect them. The 

 families of the Longicoms and Curculios furnish the 

 greater part of these ; and among the former, that 



