MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 217 



oF shrubs and trees ; their foliage, flowers, and fruit. 

 Many of tlie mottled moths, which take their station of 

 diurnal repose on the north side of the trunks of trees, 

 are with difficulty distinguished from the gray and green 

 lichens that cover them. Of this kind are Mlsclia apri- 

 lina and Acronycta Ps'i. The catei'pillar of Pcecilia ? 

 Algce, when it feeds on the yellow Lichen juniperinus^ is 

 always yellow ; but when upon the gray Lichen saxatilis 

 its hue becomes gray ^. This change is probably pro- 

 duced l)y the colour of its food. Leptocerus atratuSf a 

 kiiid of may-fly, frequents the black flower-spikes of the 

 common sedge {Carcx riparia), which fringes the banks 

 of our rivers. I have often been unable to distinguish 

 it from tiiem, and tlie birds probably often make the 

 same mistake and pass it by. — A jumping bug, very 

 similar to one figured by Schellenberg ^, also much re- 

 sembles the lichens of the oak on which I took it. 



The Spectre tribe {Phasma) go still further in this 

 mimicry, representing a small branch with its spray. I 

 have one from Brazil eight inches long, that, unless it 

 Villi seen to move, could scarcely be conceived to be any 

 thing else ; the legs as well as the head, having their little 

 snags and knobs, so that no imitation can be more ac- 

 curate. Perhaps this may be the s])ecies mentioned by 

 Molina '^, which the natives of Chili call " The Devil's 

 Horse d." 



Other insects, of various tribes, represent the leaves 



ViA)T.Vtirlcsungcn,^2\, * C'iniic. Hcfvci. t. in. J", 3. 



'• Hist, of Chili, i. 1/2. 



'' Since the first edition of this volume was printed, a lady from 

 the West Indies looking at my lahinct, njion being bhown this insect, 

 exclaimed "Oh, that is The Dnirs JJoiac/" 



