CONCLUSIONS 433 



vious experience it went directly to the top of the tree 

 and ate the buds from the end of the twig. The ability 

 of the beetle to go directly to the top of the tree where 

 he could find something to eat, without having had any 

 previous instructions or experience, Mr. Loeb calls "helio- 

 tropism" while others call it "instinct." There are two 

 kinds of beetles that I am very well acquainted with in 

 this country, that live on the outside of the bark on trees 

 and they are a source of considerable amusement. You 

 cannot possibly see them except on the instant when they 

 move. They have their backs shaped like the rough 

 bumps on the bark and of course also have the exact color 

 of the bark. I can generally find one by passing my hands 

 or something over the bark of trees, especially of oaks. 

 When disturbed they will make a swift rush for a new 

 place to hide, and it will always be in a spot where their 

 shape will exactly simulate the edge of the bark. When 

 I discover one I usually call someone's attention to the 

 spot and ask him whether or not he can see the beetle, 

 and never yet has anyone been able to see him even when 

 I pointed directly at him, until the beetle made a swift 

 spurt to a new location. When I read Mr. Loeb's idea 

 of what was the cause of the young beetle going directly 

 to the top of the tree to eat the buds, I thought to myself 

 here absurdity has reached its limit. It seemed to me 

 that when a man like Mr. Loeb will believe and will at- 

 tempt to make others believe that it is the sunlight that 

 makes the beetle go to the top of the tree and eat the buds, 

 that it was time for someone to try to get the tangled mass 

 of contradictions and mystic absurdities straightened out 

 so that a person with ordinary common sense could un- 

 derstand it. The idea seems ridiculous to me that a beetle 

 should be heliotropic because he goes after something 

 to eat, and especially that as soon as he has eaten a bud 



