202 journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



finally causes the muscles to relax, the body descends very slowly 

 and in an irregular manner. When an insect which is not feign- 

 ing is held in this way the body drops down at once. If one of the 

 hinder limbs is outstretched the insect may be seized by the tibia 

 and held out horizontally without causing the least bend in the 

 femoro-tibial joint. When the muscles finally give way the body 

 sinks downward very slowly. When we reflect that the weight 

 of the whole body in this case must be sustained by the minute 

 extensor of a very slender limb acting with a very disadvantageous 

 leverage, it is evident that the muscles must be in a state of extreme 

 contraction. The attempt to bend any of the limbs in an individ- 

 ual that is feigning death will afford proof of the extreme muscular 

 rigidity of the insect in this condition. Ranatras that are feigning 

 may be placed in all sorts of unnatural attitudes which they will 

 retain for from several minutes to over half an hour. In one case 

 an individual which had feigned death with its hinder pairs of legs 

 drawn up dorsallv and forvvard was placed ventral side up so 

 that it was supported only by the tips of its outstretched legs and 

 the extremity of the breathing tube. The vertical distance be- 

 tween the tips of the anterior legs and the top of the table was 

 indicated by a mark on a block placed close to the legs so as to 

 gauge the rapidity of their descent. The abdomen nowhere 

 touched the table, but its tip at the base of the breathing tube lay 

 about a millimeter above the surface. In this position the insect 

 remained without a perceptible movement from 7.57 p. m. to 

 9.10 p. M. when the tip of the abdomen touched the table. Be- 

 tween 9.10 and 9.20 the tips of the anterior legs sank about 

 two millimeters. At 9.25 they had sunk another millimeter and 

 at 9.28 the insect sank down on its back and began very slowly 

 to move its legs. The position in which the insect was placed 

 was one that could be maintained only through severe muscular 

 strain — both of the leg muscles and the muscles that move the 

 breathing tube. In another case a specimen was placed so that 

 it stood upon its four posterior legs with its head pointing nearly 

 directly downward. After six minutes it bent the left hind leg 

 so as to rest on the knee, after which it remained in this very 

 awkward position for seventeen minutes longer when it toppled 

 partly over on its side where it remained several minutes more 

 before getting up. 



A similar condition of muscular rigidity is quite common among 



