28 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



likeness to vegetation which very many of its members present, 

 even the predaceous MantldcB, or " Hottentot Gods," affording 

 numerous examples, some of which are very striking. One 

 Natalian species Phyllocrania paradoxa, is almost as close an 

 imitation of dead leaves as Pkyllium is of living ones ; while the 

 young of Harpax ocellata, sent to me alive from D'Urban by Col. 

 Bowker, have an extraordinary resemblance to a purple flower of 

 the composite type. In this latter instance the resemblance is 

 brought about by the position of the flat round abdomen, which 

 is turned upward and backward over the hind and middle parts 

 of the thorax, so that its lower surface, set with a central row and 

 double lateral rows of purple foliaceous expansions, is fully 

 exposed. This case of Harpax resembles that mentioned by 

 Mr. Wallace of a Javanese Mantis which exactly resembled the 

 pink flower of an orchid. 



We can readily perceive the advantage of this harmless plant- 

 like appearance to such voracious devourers of other insects as 

 the Mantidge, whose habit it is to remain motionless among 

 vegetation until some unwary prey comes within reach of their 

 long spiny arms. 



As already mentioned, the unarmed race of butterflies and 

 moths depends largely upon protective colouring, which, in 

 accordance with the different posture of the wings in repose, is 

 disposed in the former on the under-surface of the hind wings 

 and of such part of the fore wings as is exposed, while in the 

 latter it characterizes the upper surface either of all the wings 

 or of the fore wings only. In South Africa I have noticed 

 various butterflies possessed of this kind of protection in a high 

 degree ; such as, for instance, Melanitis leda, which rests among 

 dead leaves on the ground in shady places, and is then indistin- 

 guishable from them ; and the female Eronia leda, which settles 

 on the faded bright yellow leaves of the Erythrina tree. Mrs. 

 Barber noticed, near Grahamstown, quite similar behaviour in 

 the conspicuous male Papilio cenea fMerope auct.), which twice 

 deliberately settled in her garden, as a resting-place during a 

 shower of rain, on a shrub whose yellow and brown seeds and 

 flowers entirely resembled the colouring of the under side of his 

 wings. 



But by far the most elaborate imitation of this kind among 

 butterflies is the famous one, so well explained by Mr. Wallace, 



