216 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



disposes of the rest of its body so as to bear out the 

 deception. In place of keeping its head and antennae 

 in motion, a custom with butterflies, Kallima does not 

 expose these parts, and draws them back out of sight 

 between the bases of the wings. The middle pair of 

 legs by which the insect clings to the branch, and 

 keeps the "leaf" in due position, are slender and 

 almost invisible among the twigs and fibres that 

 .surround it (see Fig. 39). 



Dead or withered leaves are often attacked in 

 different places by various kinds of minute fungi, 

 and are pierced with holes by insect larvae. In 

 conformity with their patterns, extraordinary to 

 say, the undersides of the wings of the butterflies 

 exhibit representations of blotches and mildew. 

 In many cases they are irregularly covered with 

 patches and spots, so closely resembling fungi found 

 on dead leaves that it is almost impossible to believe 

 the creatures in truth are not suffering from incursions 

 of real fungi. Their semblance of a larva's hole is 

 equally accurate and telling. The scales covering the 

 wings are absent from a window-like naked spot on 

 each fore -wing, which is therefore only clothed with 

 the thin transparent wing membrane. When the 

 butterfly raises its wings in the position of rest these 

 spots come together, producing the effect of a hole, 

 since the two membranes are almost of the trans- 

 parency of glass. 



Colour, form, size, and habits have thus each their 

 parts to play in this marvellous resemblance, and that 

 it affords protection is shown by the abundance of in- 

 dividuals that possess it. To the habits of the butter- 



