386 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



of color on the bark joined a lighter patch and im- 

 mediately, as though it noticed its mistake, it 

 moved over to the lighter color which more nearly 

 harmonized with it. One of these sitting on the 

 smooth trunk of a tree looks exactly like a small 

 piece of its bark which has become loosened and 

 turned up; this is probably just what the insect 

 intends to simulate. Since I have learned its 

 trick I have been deceived by it repeatedly. 

 Pyrrhan<za portia, one of our large butterflies with 

 gorgeous crimson or scarlet wings, attempts almost 

 exactly the same trick but it does not quite so com- 

 pletely conceal itself. 



There is a handsome, slender winged butterfly 

 common in our hammocks and shaded areas (Heli- 

 conias charitonius) , our only member of a large 

 family belonging to the American tropics. Its 

 wings are jet black, with irregular diagonal yellow 

 bars. They have a peculiar trembling flight and 

 on account of their abundance are the most con- 

 spicuous insect ornament of our forests. One day 

 while sitting by one of the pools in my hammock 

 I saw half a dozen of them hanging to a strand of 

 long moss and apparently dead. The closed wings 

 hung straight down with a decidedly limp appear- 



