222 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



stick grown over by a creeping moss or junger- 

 mannia,* an appearance due to certain foliaceous 

 excrescences or irregularities, of a clear olive-green 

 colour. So absolutely identical were the counterfeit 

 and the reality, the native Dyak who brought in 

 the insect maintained it was grown over with moss, 

 although alive, and it was only after minute ex- 

 amination that Dr. Wallace could convince him- 

 self that the fact was not so. The change of 

 character is pronounced. In Darwin's opinion there 

 is nothing improbable in this insect having varied in 

 the irregularities on its surface, and in these having 

 become green. 



Importance is attached to the details of form and 

 colour in the Beetle family. The small Buprestidse, 

 for example, which generally rest on the mid-ribs of 

 leaves, closely resemble the excrement of birds. 

 Chlamys pihila is undistinguishable from the dung of 

 caterpillars. The genus Chlamys furnishes another 

 illustration of this method of concealment and pro- 

 tection in a brilliant and beautiful beetle, said to 

 suggest some kinds of fruit by the inequalities of its 

 red-coloured surface. Some of the Cassidae, from their 

 shape and colour, sparkle like dew-drops upon leaves. 

 From the Heteroptera we get a representation of a 

 withered and crumpled leaf, with the edges turned up 

 and eaten away, as if by caterpillars. Some bugs 

 simulate leaves in skeleton, when the parenchymatous* 

 portion has disappeared and the network alone is 

 left. Spiders are often protectively coloured, and 

 imitate the lichen on tree-trunks (as Philodromus). 

 They are eagerly sought by insectivorous* animals, so 



