;o8 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 





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Fig. 6. Pupa of Spalgis, showing "monkey 

 face." (From figure published, 1892, in' Psyche.) 



of what species, is taken from 

 a photograph of a dried speci- 

 men. It has the face-like ap- 

 pearance, and suggests amus- 

 ingly the restoration of the 

 Brontosaurus, in the American 

 Museum. 



Still another meaningless 

 resemblance is in the death's 

 head moth, Acherontia atropos. 

 which shows a " remarkably 

 faithful delineation of a skull 

 and bones upon the back of 

 the thorax." And in allied 

 species the skull is even more 

 sharply pictured — in A. lach- 

 esis, for example, where it 

 appears in minature size. 



A less familiar case, and as obviously meaningless, is the resem- 

 blance to a cuttle fish, which one finds in the end view of the larva of 

 the crane-fly, Tipida abdominalis, Fig. 8. This appearance might 

 conceivably inspire a wholesome dread among some marine creatures — 

 but the fact remains that the present larva lives in wet rotten wood (or 

 under ground) where an octopus-like resemblance could not benefit it. 

 Indeed among insects one may find numerous instances of accidental 

 resemblances. Some pupae we have already referred to. Others, bom- 

 bycids, for example, suggest mummy cases, the region of wings, 

 antennae and tongue, picturing both in form and proportions the 

 Egyptian head-gear and beard. It is improbable, to say the least, 

 that the Egyptians arrayed their dead after the fashion of a pupa 

 to encourage a teleological analogy, for one reason, since the headdress 

 and beard were displayed in a similar fashion dur- 

 ing the lifetime of the individual. Striking, too, 

 are pictures which one sometimes finds on the wings 

 of butterflies — among these, as Mr. Beutenmiillei 

 showed me, are the heads of French poodles, which 

 appear en silhouette on the wings of the orange- 

 colored butterfly, Colias (ccesonia and eurydice). 

 And on the hind wings of the ragged butterflies 

 fig. 7. PuPAOF.Fe/1- (flntpta), as every one knows, appear commas and 

 '' S flce"" SP ' showing semicolons printed in silver upon an otherwise dull- 

 colored wing. In the group of bugs (Hemiptera) one 

 recalls the initial W, which occurs in certain cicadas, and there is the 

 interesting case of the tree-hopper, Membracis binotnta. to which Pro- 

 fessor Wheeler drew my attention. This tree-hopper and its young 



