212 DARWIXIS:\r CHAP. 



its station ; and it has been seen to capture flies Avhich came 

 to the flowers. 



But the most curious and beautiful case of aUuring protec- 

 tion is that of a wingless Mantis in India, Avhich is so formed 

 and coloured as to resemble a pink orchis or some other 

 fantastic flower. The whole insect is of a bright pink colour, 

 the large and oval abdomen looking like the labellum of 

 an orchid. On each side, the two posterior legs have im- 

 mensely dilated and flattened thighs Avhich represent the 

 petals of a flower, while the neck and forelegs imitate the 

 upper sejial and column of an orchid. The insect rests 

 motionless, in this svmmetrical attitude, anion o; bright 2;reen 

 foliage, being of course very conspicuous, but so exactly 

 resembliiii^ a flower that butterflies and other insects settle 

 upon it and are instantly captured. It is a li\ang trap, 

 baited in the most allurins; manner to catch the unwarv 

 flower-hauntino- insects.' 



'O 



The Colamtion of Birds' Eggs. 



The colours of birds' eggs have long been a difficulty on 

 the theory of adaptive coloration, because, in so many cases 

 it has not been easy to see what can be the use of the par- 

 ticular colours, which are often so bright and conspicuous that 

 they seem intended to attract attention rather than to be con- 

 cealed. A more careful consideration of the subject in all its 

 bearings shows, however, that here too, in a great number of 

 cases, Ave have examples of protective coloration. When, 

 1 therefore, we cannot see the meaning of the colour, Ave may 

 suppose that it has been protective in some ancestral form, 

 and, not being hurtful, has persisted under changed condi- 

 tions Avhich rendered the jorotection needless. 



"We may divide all eggs, for our present purpose, into tAA'o 



^ A beautiful drawing of this rare insect, Hymenopus bicornis (in tlie 

 nymph or active pupa state), was kindly sent me by Mr. Wood-Mason, Curator 

 of the Indian Museum at Calcutta. A species, A'ery similar to it, inhabits Java, 

 where it is said to resemble a piuk orchid. Other ^lantidte, of the genus 

 Gongylus, have the anterior part of the thorax dilated and coloured either 

 white, pink, or purple ; and they so closely resemble flowers that, according 

 to Mr. Wood- Mason, one of them, having a bright violet-blue prothoracic 

 shield, was found in Pegu by a botanist, and was for a moment mistaken by 

 him for a flower. See Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1878, p. liii. 



