384 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



PROTECTIVE COLOURING AND MIMICRY. 



I should like to have been able to give a lengthy note on this 

 most interesting subject, but had very few opportunities of studying 

 even the cases which came under my notice. 



Among the more conspicuous instances of protective colouring, 

 I may mention the genus Ageronia of butterflies. These invariably 

 rest, head downwards, with their wings fully expanded, and 

 flattened out on the lichen-covered trunks of the lofty palm trees. 

 These butterflies are plentiful at Rio de Janeiro, and, though a 

 large insect some two inches across the wings may yet be 

 passed unnoticed at the distance of a few yards, so closely do they 

 simulate the lichens. 



The genus Siderone is also noteworthy. They always rest, with 

 wings folded over their bodies, on branchlets ; the markings and 

 colouring of the under side of the wings resembling exactly dry 

 brown or yellow leaves. The species S. Isidora (Cram.) has also two 

 clear spots on the upper wings, mimicking holes made by insects. 



Referring to the mimicry of moths, Mr. Bates says,* " Several 

 times I shot by mistake a humming-bird hawk-moth instead of a 

 bird." " Along the narrow paths in the forests an immense 

 number of clear-winged moths are found in the daytime, mostly 

 coloured like wasps, bees, ichneumon flies, and other hymeno- 

 pterous insects. Some species of the same family have opaque 

 wings, and wear the livery of different species of beetles; these 

 hold their wings in repose, in a closed position over their bodies, 

 so that they look like the wing-cases of the beetles they decep- 

 tively imitate." \ 



from all eternity, it would be a superfluous hypothesis. ... It is, then, much 

 more simple and much more natural to suppose that the universe has always 

 existed, that the unlimited material which composes it has always been in 

 motion, that it has ever eternally metamorphosed itself." On reading this, 

 one thought is borne on the mind, that word "God shall send them strong 

 delusion, that they should believe a lie" (2 Thess. ii. n). Domine dirige nos 

 in viam veritatis. 



This note, with the exception of the last sentence, was inserted in the 

 Morning Post, January 6, 1886. . 



* " The Naturalist on the River Amazons," vol. i. pp. 181, 105. 



t Mr. Thomas Belt, in "The Naturalist in Nicaragua," gives instances of 



