140 



E. MELVILLE DuPORTE 



time of eclosion it is not possible to say whether these individuals 

 always reacted negatively, or from what cause they had lost 

 the power of response. 



Death Feigning Attitudes. The attitude typically assumed by 

 the insect during the death feint is not a simulation of the atti- 

 tude of the dead insect. In death the femora are always ex- 

 tended more or less perpendicularly from the ventral surface of 

 the body, and are never pressed against the sternum, even if 

 the insect is killed when in the feigning attitude. The tibiae 

 and tarsi are flexed in such a way that the latter are often more 

 or less intertwined and always quite close to each other. In 

 the death feigning attitude the legs are all pressed closely against 

 the sternum and the tarsi are never very close to each other. 



Figure 1. — Death-feint of Tychius picirostris. A and B, lateral and ventral views 

 of the death-feigning attitude. C, lateral view of the insect after death. X21 



The fore femora extend straight out laterally, pressed against 

 the presternum, the tibiae are bent back against the ventral 

 face of the femora and the tarsi are bent forward and outward. 

 The middle femora also extend laterally and slightly forward, 

 the tibiae bend caudo-mesad, their apex being situated in front 

 and to one side of the meta-coxae. The tarsi run either straight 

 or obliquely backwards. In the hind legs the femora are stretched 

 obliquely backwards, the tibiae bent forward almost parallel to 



