202 



PSYCHE. 



[January 1S92. 



aspect of the chrysalis, which excited 

 very naturally the surprise of Mr. Good, 

 as his note which I append to this brief 

 account shows. It is worthy of remark 

 that the same strange likeness to a 

 human face which is found in S. s-sig- 

 nata, is observable in Feniseca tarquin- 

 ius. In the notes sent to Mr. Edwards 

 by Miss Morton, and published in the 

 Canadian entomologist, vol. iS, p. 

 147, she asks "Have you noticed the 

 ape's face which the chrysalis shows?" 

 While Mr. Good regrets that he was 

 unable, in inflating the larval skin, to 

 preserve the white matter adhering to 

 it, there is, nevertheless, a good deal of 

 it clinging to it. Examined under a 

 powerful microscope this adhering 

 matter is se^n to present a peculiar 

 shining appearance, and to thickly 

 cover the hairs with minute granula- 

 tions as if each hair had been dipped in 

 some substance like a solution of sugar 

 or salt, and then had been dried. I 

 herewith give Mr. Good's notes : 



January 19th, 1S91. 

 '•Today I stumbled upon the queer- 

 est object which I think I ever saw. 

 On the underside of the leaves of a 

 fragipanni I saw a number of small 

 chrysalids which bore a most absurd 

 resemblance to a human face. I found 

 a few of the larvae still unchanged. 

 Their color was dark brownish, but I 

 have inflated one, and that will be better 

 than any description. The body was 

 all covered over with a whitish sub- 

 stance, not a part of the body, and 

 which I took to be the remains of plant 

 lice with which the underside of the 



leaves on which the larvae were found 

 abounded. I think that these caterpillars 

 must have fed upon these white plant 

 lice, for I could not detect that they had 

 eaten the leaves. Almost all of the 

 white foreign substance is rubbed ofl 

 of the specimen which I inflated, and 

 I regret that I did not succeed better 

 in preserving the specimen just as it 

 appeared. The chrysalis is attached to 

 the leaf by the back of the head,* and 

 presents to view what mimics in a won- 

 derful way the face of a man or a chim- 

 panzee. Especially do the eyes and 

 the well-marked brows overhanging 

 them present a startling resemblance to 

 the human face. The natives notice 

 and are surprised at the resemblance as 

 much as I am. Here is mimicry, but 

 to what possible purpose? Or has 

 Dame Nature for once laid aside her 

 usually practical character and decided 

 to amuse herself? I hope I may be 

 able to preserve and send a chrysalis 

 intact." 



January 24th, 1S91. 

 "Today two of No. 10 have emerged, 

 and I am pleased to find that we are 

 dealing with a rare butterfly. The 

 empty shells show nothing of the 

 resemblance to a human or monkey 

 face of which I have spoken previously. 

 I have therefore dried a chrysalis, and 

 have succeeded well, except that one 

 eye looks a little bloodshot. I hope 

 that you can make out the exact appear- 

 ance of the chrysalis." 



* Mr. Good, when speaking of the "head" in this 

 connection, is not employing- technically accurate lan- 

 guage, but is accommodating his phrase to the appear- 

 ance of the chrysalis. The mode cf attachment is pre- 

 cisely like that to be observed in Feniseca tarquinius. 



