168 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. V. 



The Curculio nebulosus, by its grey colour, spotted with 

 black, is so like the soil upon which it is generally 

 found, that it will deceive even the eye of an entomo- 

 logist. The little species of the same family, found 

 on the blossoms of the Scrophularia, by its close re- 

 semblance to the black and white excrement of a bird, 

 nearly escaped our observation this very morning. Others 

 resemble chalk, pebbles, or little black stones, either 

 rough or polished : by these means, they escape the 

 observation, and consequently the injury, of their ene- 

 mies. Multitudes, as already remarked, are clothed in 

 the colours of the plants upon which they feed, or the 

 substances which they generally frequent. The upper 

 wings of nearly all the hesperian moths (Nocterides) 

 are mottled and variegated with dull colours ; and for 

 this reason, these insects, during the day, repose on the 

 sides of the trunks of trees, pales, walls, &c., without 

 sheltering themselves under cover ; and, being perfectly 

 motionless, their colours harmonise so exactly with these 

 objects, that they are overlooked by their enemies, and 

 can scarcely be perceived by the keen eye of an ento- 

 mologist. The whole of the Mantis family, or walk- 

 ing-leaf insects, as they are commonly termed (Phas- 

 mida), may be said to deceive by their resemblance to 

 the leaves and fragments of vegetables : some, of an 

 enormous length, look so exactly like slender dead twig 

 covered with bark, that, in prosecuting our researches 

 in Tropical America, we only discovered they were in- 

 sects by mere accident : upon being handled, they feign 

 death ; und their legs are often knobbed like the withered 

 buds of trees. Some resemble living twigs, and are 

 green ; others, such as are dead, and are therefore co- 

 loured brown ; the wings of many put on the resem- 

 blance of dry and crumpled leaves, while those of others 

 are vivid green, in exact accordance with the plants 

 they respectively inhabit. As all these insects are ra- 

 pacious, these disguises are not only given for their pro- 

 tection, but also to enable them to approach their prey 

 unsuspected. The same observations are applicable to 



