MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 235 



and flat, so close to their body, and lie so entirely 

 without motion when alarmed, that they look like a 

 dead body, or rather the dung- of some small animal. — 

 Amongst the weevil tribe, the species of Illiger's genus 

 Cri/ptori/ncJms ( Rj/ncha'>u/s, F., dirctilio, Lratr.), when 

 an entoiiiological finger ajiproaches them, as I have 

 often experienced to my great disappointment, apply- 

 ing their rostrum and legs to tlie underside of their 

 trunk, fall from the station on which you Jiope to en- 

 trap them, to the ground or amongst the grass ; where, 

 lying without stirring a limb, they are scarcely to be 

 distinguished from the soil around them. Thus also, 

 doubtless, they often disappoint the birds as well as the 

 entomologist.- — A little timber-boring beetle (Anobium 

 pertinax^ F.), (and others of the genus have the same 

 faculty,) which, when i\\e head is withdrawn somewhat 

 within the thorax, much resembles a monk with his 

 hood, has long been famous for a most pertinacious si- 

 mulation of death. All that has been related of the 

 heroic constancy of American savages, when taken and 

 tortured by their enemies, scarcely comes up to that 

 which these little creatures exhibit. You may maim 

 them, pull them limb from limb, roast them alive over 

 a slow lire^, but you will not gain your end; not a 

 joint will they move, nor show by the least symptom 

 that they suffer pain. Do not think, however, that I 

 ever tried these experiments upon them myself, or that 

 1 recommend you to do the same. I am content to 

 ])elieve the facts that I have here stated upon the con- 

 current testimony of respectable witnesses, witliout 

 feeling any temptation to put the constancy of the poor 



* De Geer, iv. 229. 



