THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 223 



This is the condition to which the term "death feint" is usually 

 applied, but it is difficult to draw a sharp line of demarcation be- 

 tween this and the reaction of the ruby wasps, between the at- 

 titude of ruby wasps and that of the carrion and rove beetles, or 

 between the attitude of these beetles and the rigid attitude of the 

 yellow-necked apple-tree caterpillar. 



The death feint varies greatly in degree. On the one hand 

 we have certain insects which when disturbed remain momentarily 

 quiet, becoming active again almost immediately. On the other 

 hand we have De Geer's classical example, Anobium pertinax. 

 Kirby and Spence referring to this insect and in part quoting 

 De Geer say: "All that has been related of the heroic constancy 

 of American savages when taken and tortured by their enemies 

 scarcely comes up to that which these little creatures exhibit. 

 You may maim them, pull them limb from limb, roast them alive 

 over a slow fire, but you will not gain your end; not a joint will 

 they move nor show by the least symptoms that they suffer pain,"* 

 and they naively continue: "do not think, however, that I ever 

 tried these experiments upon them myself, or that I recommend 

 you to do the same." In spite, however, of the admonition of 

 the learned- authors of the Introduction of Entomology several 

 workers have repeated these experiments and found that the 

 case of Anobium is an extreme one and that the majority of feign- 

 ing insects gradate between this extreme and the other in which 

 the loss of activity is but momentary. In Tychius picirostris, for 

 example, the writer finds that while the legs and antennae of the 

 feigning insect may be cut ofif without eliciting any symptoms of 

 activity, more drastic disturbances such as decapitation or sever- 

 ing the trunk always cause the insect to resume its activity. In 

 the game insect it was found impossible to elicit the feigning, re- 

 sponse on a hot surface, and an insect in the death feint placed on 

 a hot surface immediately became active and tried to escape. 

 Cold, on the other hand, very greatly increased the duration of 

 the feint. _^__^_ 



*Compare Holmes on the feint of the Pekinese tern. "You may pull them 

 about, stretch out their legs, neck or wings and place them in the most awkward 

 positions, and they will remain as limp and motionless as if really dead. They 

 will even suffer their wing and tail feathers to be plucked out one by one with- 

 out a wince." 



