THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 199 



1888, found a specimen of Ips 4-signatus in a jug of milk. The last 

 " find " was a rather curious one, but the specimen was quite fresh, and 

 had evidently been " supplied " with the morning's milk. No specimens 

 of fasciatus were observed during the summer months, so that my experi- 

 ence appears to have been just the reverse of Dr. Hamilton's. 



F. B. Caulfield, Montreal. 



INSECTS FEIGNING DEATH. 



Dear Sir : I have read with much interest Mr. A. R. Grote's commu- 

 nications upon the subject of " Insects Feigning Death," glad always of 

 the opportunity of learning from the older members of the entomological 

 fraternity. But in this case I am not sure that I comprehend the gentle- 

 man's meaning. In the June number of the Can. Ent. he expresses 

 a doubt in regard to insects possessing any knowledge of death, and hence 

 considers that they are not mentally capable of feigning death. In the 

 August number he again takes up the subject and says, " It is probable 

 to me that their attitudes of repose are assumed from the experience they 

 have gradually acquired, that in a state of quiet they will best avoid the 

 immediate dangers which beset them, etc." Immediate dangers of what ? 

 Physical pain, a knowledge of which they have gained by frequent cap- 

 tures and escapes ? It strikes me that it is not only not this, but death 

 itself which they seek to avoid. With no knowledge of death, as such, 

 why should they seek to avoid it ? Is it not true that all animal life is 

 doomed to die sooner or later ? And is not a knowledge of the fact that 

 it is something to be feared and avoided as long as possible, necessary to 

 the perpetuation of species ? Surely even insects would not seek to avoid 

 that of which they have no knowledge. Does not the very presence of 

 the sense of fear presuppose a knowledge of death, in the sense of 

 annihilation? If the larva of a Geometer has learned, no matter whether 

 by experience or instinct, that by assuming a certain rigid position re- 

 sembling a portion of the twig upon which it is itself located, it is thereby 

 enabled to escape destruction in common with the twig ; might not 

 another species, by the same course of reasoning, learn that, to assume 

 the same inanimate position as a dead companion who is not carried 

 away, it also might escape ? Beetles belonging to the genera Chlamys 

 and Exewa, of the family Chrysomelidce, will often drop from a seemingly 



