184 PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE IN ANIMALS. 



borne by these ants is represented by the thin and laterally 

 flattened body of the creature, which is so compressed that 

 it does not exceed a leaf in thickness, while its jagged 

 upper border simulates well enough the irregular contour 

 of the leaf carried by the ants, of which the borders are 

 generally gnawed by the bearers. Although the legs and 

 lower part of the body of this most curious insect are 

 reddish in colour, the leaf-like upper part of the body has 

 assumed a green hue exactly resembling that of the ant- 

 borne leaves. In a drove of cooshie ants, as the leaf- bearers 

 are called, the mimicking insect is distinguishable solely by 

 its somewhat inferior size ; this difference is not, however, 

 sufficiently great to attract the attention of birds, which 

 have learnt by experience that the cooshies are by no 

 means palatable morsels. 



It would be beyond the scope of the present chapter to 

 enter upon the difficult question of the means whereby 

 these mimetic resemblances, whether to animate or 

 inanimate objects, have been produced ; but sufficient has 

 been said to show that an amount of interest lies in the 

 subject, and those whose interest has thus been aroused 

 may perhaps have the good fortune to discover new and 

 unsuspected instances of one or other of these types of 

 protective resemblances. 



