222 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



and calm as scarcely to shake an aspen leaf, and saw 

 with wonder what he mistook for a little withered, pale, 

 crumpled leaf, eaten as it Were by caterpillars, flutter- 

 ing from the tree. The sight appeared to him so very 

 extraordinary, that he left his place of shelter to con- 

 template it more nearly ; and could scarcely believe his 

 eyes, when he beheld a living insect, in shape and co- 

 lour resembling- a fragment of a withered leaf with the 

 edges turned up and eaten away as it were by caterpil- 

 lars, and at the same time all over beset with prickles *.-^ 

 A British insect, one of our largest moths {Bombi/x 

 quercifolia, F.), called by collectors the lappet-moih, 

 affords an example from the Lepidoptera order of the 

 imitation in question, its wings representing, both in 

 shape and colour, an arid brown leaf. Some bugs, be- 

 longing to the genus Tingis, F., simulate portions of 

 leaves in a still further state of decay, when the veins 

 only are left. For, the thorax and elytra of these in- 

 sects being reticulated, with the little areas or raeshes 

 of the net-work transparent, this circumstance gives 

 them exactly the appearance of small fragments of 

 skeletons of leaves. 



But you have probably heard of most of these in- 

 stances of imitation : I hope, therefore, you will give 

 credit to the two instance^ to which I shall next call 

 your attention, of insects that even mimic flowers and 

 fruit. With respect to the former, I recollect to have 

 seen in a collection made by Mr. Masson at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, a species of Pneumora, Thunb. — ar- 

 ranged by Linne with the grasshoppers {Grt/Uus) — the 

 elytra of which were of a rose- or pink-colour, which, 



• Vot/age, &c. ii. 16. 



