Packard.] 



INSECTS AS MIMICS. 



273 



and more the rule in the hot and moist forests of the tropics. 

 Here the ph3'sical environment of the animal is nndoubtedly 

 the primary cause of its higli colors. 



The buds of plants and trees are imitated by many kinds 

 of weevils, whose oval, often rough, bodies and sluggish 

 natures protect them. Such is the plum weevil (Fig. 210), 

 which looks like a dried plum bud. The small cones of the 

 pine are simulated by the Chalcophora liberta, a Buprestid 

 beetle. Early in June wlien the brown Elaters are coming 

 out of the ground and are found resting on the low maple 

 bushes, I have observed some to resemble closely the long 

 leaf buds of that tree. 



Certain small weevils resemble the seeds of plants. AVal- 

 FiG. 210. ■ Fig. 211. 



Plum Weevil ami Larva. 



Young Clilaniy and case. 



lace quotes Kirby and Spence's statement that the small 

 weevil named Onthojihilus sulcatus looks like the seed of an 

 uml)elliferous plant. Wallace also quotes Bates as saying 

 that some tropical spiders "are exactly like flower buds, and 

 take their station in the axils of leaves, where they remain 

 motionless waiting for their prej'." 



Some beetles, like the little, tliick, rounded, oblong Chla- 



mys, have been noticed by Bates, and also by Wallace, to 



resemble the castings of large caterpillars, and the case of 



the larva of this beetle (Fig. 211), which is not uncom- 



18 17 



