THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XX.] AUGUST, 1887. [No. 291. 



PROTECTIVE COLORATION. 

 By G V. Hudson. 



Probably one of the most interesting subjects in connection 

 with Entomology is the protective colouring of insects. I have 

 read with great pleasure a most exhaustive paper relating to this 

 matter by Mr. Eolancl Trimen (Entom. xviii. 25), and now 

 propose to offer a few remarks on the same subject in connection 

 with some of our New Zealand species, where, I think, protective 

 colouring is unusually prevalent. 



Commencing our observations with Coleoptera, we find a 

 curious beetle {Enarsus hakewelli) which, when at rest with 

 its legs, &c., closely packed away, exactly resembles a pellet of 

 mud about the size of an ordinary bean ; this is not owing to the 

 adhesion of any particles of earth, &c., on the insect, but is most 

 evident in perfectly clean specimens. Another insect {Bytinotus 

 squamidosus) bears an equally close resemblance to a piece of 

 stick ; in fact, when I first took this species amongst rotten wood 

 in June, 1883, at Palmerston North, I was doubtful as to its 

 coleopterous nature until I had carefully examined it with a lens, 

 and was quite unable to persuade some friends it was a beetle until 

 I had compelled it to walk about on the table. The rare weevil, 

 Ectopsis ferrugalis, is more remarkable in its resemblance to a 

 short stick cut diagonally, the ends of the elytra suddenly 

 sloping down, their colouring at this point resembling that of the 

 section of a small twig. I should imagine this must be a purely 

 accidental circumstance. 



ENTOM. — AUGUST, 1887. 8C 



