CONSCIOUS PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE. 551 
5 That is to say, where the high cerebral development exists which 
would, according to W. L. Distant, tend to produce mimicry and 
protective resemblances, precisely there these adaptations are lowly 
developed as compared with Insecta, where we meet with far less intel- 
ligence and far more of the unvarying repetitions of pure instinct, 
incapable of improvement by learning, and, within their rigid limits, 
too perfect to require it. Where the conditions are most favourable 
for ‘active mimicry,’ mimetic and cryptic adaptations are least 
prominent; where they are least favourable, these adaptations become 
most conspicuous. 
6 So far as I have been able to collect evidence, Kallima does not 
rest on dry and withered leaves, but in situations, such as trunks and 
branches, in which dead leaves would not attract attention. H. J. Elwes 
has stated that it freely expands its wings when settled, and looks any- 
thing but leaf-like; but this is probably when it is thoroughly on the 
alert, during the short pauses between successive flights. C. Swinhoe 
has informed me that it invariably rests head downwards, like a dead 
leaf hanging by its stalk, so that all the figures and preparations seen 
in this country representing its natural attitude are wrong.* 
It is quite impossible to explain the protective attitude of this or 
any other insect on the principle of ‘ active mimicry,”’ unless we are 
going arbitrarily to assume that certain defensive activities are to be 
explained in this way, while others, equally necessary and equally 
elaborate, cannot be thus interpreted. Consider, for instance, the 
concealment often brought by the cocoon—the selection of an appro- 
priate situation, the building into the walls of a part of the surrounding 
surface, &c., &e. Upon the principle of ‘ active mimicry,” ‘the view 
would be, I suppose, that the ancestral larva spun a cocoon which was 
not much of a success, and was in consequence attacked by enemies ; 
that the larva observed these attacks, and accordingly improved its 
cocoon. But that is not the way in which the struggle for existence is 
waged with insects. If the larva failed, it failed, and that would be 
the end of the matter. ~It has no chance of improvement; it has no 
opportunity of learning by experience. Its only chance of survival is 
to avoid experience of foes altogether ; experience is the most danger- 
ous thing in the world for an edible insect. This becomes still more 
obvious when we remember that failure or success is almost always 
determined long after the cocoon is made. The caterpillar, perhaps, 
spins the cocoon in autumn, but the real stress of competition will 
come in winter, when insect-eating animals are pressed hard with 
hunger, and search high and low for food. But the caterpillar is by 
* Cf. Eha, ‘ Natural Science,’ vol. ix. p. 299.—Ep. 
B 
