120 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



ON INSECTS FEIGNING DEATH. 



Dear Sir : I notice in Dr. Hamilton's paper, page 6, the remark that 

 a statement made by me in your pages, namely, " that insects can have 

 no knowledge of death," as such of course and purposely feigning it, is 

 " unsupported " and " dogmatic." I wish to correct these two adjec- 

 tives, otherwise, as a matter of opinion, I have no further interest with the 

 subject. I cited in my paper the reason for my belief that insects merely 

 kept still and did not move on the approach of danger. I showed that 

 hard bodied insects, as beetles, suffered themselves to drop, while soft 

 bodied caterpillars, equally assuming attitudes of repose and quiet, 

 assisted by their colors and mimicry, clung tenaciously. There is no 

 doubt in my mind t^at the " keeping still " is the main point, and that 

 the insects have not sufficient mental powers to feign death. Whether 

 insects can have any knowledge of death, as such, may be a matter of 

 opinion, I should as soon credit them with a knowledge of history. 

 Beetles allow themselves to fall by folding in the legs, knowing, from 

 acquired or hereditary experience, that a fall will not hurt them, while in 

 the grass where they tumble they have a place of concealment where they 

 can stop "feigning" and scamper away. While I do not believe t v at 

 insects can reach the " feigning " process, I know that Dr. Hamilton 

 can, when he says of my paper, which we have all at least glanced over 

 in the pages of the Canadian Entomologist, that he " lately saw it in 

 print somewhere." Such carelessness is probably feigned, and whether 

 it is protective may be doubted. It is, however, the privilege of man to 

 keep still, without the danger of being credited with feigning death, a 

 privilege it seems denied to insects. It is well so, since a silent man 

 might run the risk of being buried on suspicion. A. R. Grote. 



notes on coleoptera. 

 Dear Sir : In my paper in the April No. of the Entomologist, page 

 66, last line, Apio7i herculanum is printed in error herculaneum. On 

 same page I wrote " prolongata [Dicerca] breeds so far as known in 

 conifers." This statement admits of a doubt, when the proof is sifted 

 thoroughly. Mr. F. C. Bowditch writes that he collected it on the 

 Colorado mountains on aspen and willow, but never on conifers. It is 

 probably polyphagous, like some other species of this family. 



John Hamilton. 



