CHAP. V. ATTITUDES OF INSECTS. 153 



danger by feigning death. The common dung chafer 

 (Geotrupes stercorarius), when touched, or in fear, sets 

 out its legs as stiff as if they were made of iron wire, 

 which is their position when dead, and remain 

 perfectly motionless. The tree chafers elevate their 

 posterior legs into the air, probably with the same 

 view ; while the Scarabceus Sacer and its allies, if our 

 memory serves us right, pack their legs close to their 

 body, in the same manner as do the Byrrhii mentioned 

 by Mr. Kirby.* The same author relates, from the 

 scarce volumes of De Geer, the extraordinary pertinacity 

 with which the little beetle, named Anobium pertinax 

 by Fabricius, persists in counterfeiting death. " All 

 that has been related of the heroic constancy of Ame - 

 rican savages, when taken and tortured by their enemies, 

 scarcely comes up to that which these little creatures 

 exhibit. You may maim them, pull them limb from 

 limb, roast them alive over a slow fire ; but you will 

 not gain your end, not a joint will they move, nor 

 show, by the least symptom, that they suffer pain." * 

 Many Tenthredince, or saw-flies, pack their antenna? 

 and legs close together ; and every one has witnessed 

 the same remarkable habit in the majority of spiders. 



(174.) There are two sorts of attitudes assumed by 

 caterpillars, which deserve attention, the one decep- 

 tive, the other threatening. The first is chiefly prac- 

 tised by those belonging to the looper moths (Geo- 

 metridce). These caterpillars, when at rest, support 

 themselves for hours by means of their hinder feet 

 only, raising the body high in the air, and preserving 

 it either in a stiff straight line, or in a curve (fig. 51.). 

 The colour of the skin exactly resembles that of the 

 stem or bark of the tree upon which the insect feeds ; 

 and thus the deception is so complete, that a person, 

 after having had one of these deceiving masqueraders 

 pointed out to him, will have much difficulty in be- 

 lieving it to be anything more than a dry or green twig. 

 Nothing, in short, can be more deceptive ; so that the 



* Int. to Eat. vol. ii. p. 234. t I<UWd. 



