VIII 
ORIGIN AND USES OF COLOUR IN ANIMALS 
211 
concealment, but as a direct means of securing their prey by 
attracting them within the enemy’s reach. Only a few cases 
of this kind of coloration have yet been observed, chiefly 
among spiders and mantidae; but, no doubt, if attention 
were given to the subject in tropical countries, many more 
would be discovered. Mr. H. 0. Forbes has described a 
most interesting example of this kind of simulation in 
Java. While pursuing a large butterfly through the jungle, 
he was stopped by a dense bush, on a leaf of which he 
observed one of the skipper butterflies sitting on a bird’s 
dropping. “ I had often,” he says, “ observed small Blues 
at rest on similar spots on the ground, and have wondered 
what such a refined and beautiful family as the Lycaenidae 
could find to enjoy, in food apparently so incongruous 
for a butterfly. I approached with gentle steps, but 
ready net, to see if possible how the present species was 
engaged. It permitted me to get quite close, and even to 
seize it between my fingers; to my surprise, however, part of 
the body remained behind, adhering as I thought to the 
excreta. I looked closely, and finally touched with my finger 
the excreta to find if it Avere glutinous. To my delighted 
astonishment I found that my eyes had been most perfectly 
deceived, and that what seemed to be the excreta was a 
most artfully coloured spider, lying on its back with its feet 
crossed over and closely adpressed to the body.” Mr. Forbes 
then goes on to describe the exact appearance of such excreta, 
and how the various parts of the spider are coloured to 
produce the imitation, even to the liquid portion which 
usually runs a little down the leaf. This is exactly imitated 
by a portion of the thin web which the spider first spins 
to secure himself firmly to the leaf; thus producing, as Mr. 
Forbes remarks, a living bait for butterflies and other insects 
so artfully contrived as to deceive a pair of human eyes, even 
when intently examining it. 1 
A native species of spider (Thomisus citreus) exhibits a 
somewhat similar alluring protection by its close resemblance 
to buds of the wayfaring tree, Viburnum lantana. It is pure 
creamy-white, the abdomen exactly resembling in shape and 
colour the unopened buds of the flowers among which it takes 
1 A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago , p. 63. 
