406 MEANS OP DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



which it usually sits in the day-time, that you may have the leaf in your 

 hand and yet not discover it. 1 The tribe of grass-hoppers called Locustas 

 by Fabricius, though the true Locust does not belong to it, in the veining, 

 colour, and texture of their elytra, resemble green leaves. 2 The tribe of 

 Phasmina named praying-insects and spectres also of the Orthoptera 

 order, often exhibit the same peculiarity. Others of them, by the spots and 

 mixtures of colour observable in these organs, represent leaves that are 

 decaying in various degrees. Those of several species of Mantidce like- 

 wise imitate dry leaves, and so exactly, by their opacity, colour, rigidity, 

 and veins, that, were no other part of the animal visible even after a close 

 examination, it would be generally affirmed to be nothing but a dry leaf. 

 Of this nature is the Phyllium siccifolium, and two or three Brazilian species 

 in my cabinet, that seem undescribed, which I will show you when you 

 give me an opportunity. But these imitations of dry leaves are not con- 

 fined to the Orthoptera order solely. Amongst the Hemiptera, the Phyllo- 

 morpha paradoxa, a kind of bug, surprised Sparrman not a little. He was 

 sheltering himself from the mid-day sun when the air was so still and calm 

 as scarcely to shake an aspen leaf, and saw with wonder what he mistook 

 for a little withered, pale, crumpled leaf, eaten as it were by caterpillars, 

 fluttering from the tree. The sight appeared to him so very extraordinary, 

 that he left his place of shelter to contemplate it more nearly ; and could 

 scarcely believe his eyes, when he beheld a living insect, in shape and 

 colour resembling a fragment of a withered leaf with the edges turned up 

 and eaten away as it were by caterpillars, and at the same time all over 

 beset with prickles. 3 A British insect, one of our largest moths (Gastro- 

 pacha quercifolia), called by collectors the Lappet moth, affords an example 

 from the Lepidoptera order of the imitation in question, its wings repre- 

 senting, both in shape and colour, an arid brown leaf. Some bugs, belong- 

 ing to the genus Dictyonota of Mr. Curtis 4 , simulate portions of leaves in 

 a still further state of decay, when the veins only are left ; for, the thorax 

 and elytra of these insects being reticulated, with the little areas or meshes 

 of the net-work transparent, this circumstance gives them exactly the ap- 

 pearance of small fragments of skeletons of leaves. 



But you have probably heard of most of these species of imitation : I 

 hope, therefore, you will give credit to the two instances to which I shall 

 next call your attention, of insects that even mimic flowers and fruit. With 

 respect to the former, I recollect to have seen, in a collection made by Mr. 

 Mason at the Cape of Good Hope, a species of the orthopterous genus 

 Pneumora, the elytra of which were of a rose or pink colour, which shroud- 

 ing its vesiculose abdomen, gave it much the appearance of a fine flower. 

 A most beautiful and brilliant beetle, of the genus Chlamys (Ch. Bacca), 

 found by Captain Hancock in Brazil, by the inequalities of its ruby-coloured 

 surface, strikingly resembles some kinds of fruit. And to make the series 

 of imitations complete, a minute black beetle, with ridges upon its elytra 

 (Onthophilus sulcatus 5 ), when lying without motion, is very like the seed 

 of an umbelliferous plant. The dog-tick is not unlike a small bean ; which 



1 Brahm, Insecten Calender, ii. 383. 



2 Hence we have Locusta citrifolia, laurifolia, camellifolia, myrtifolia, salvifolia, 

 &c., which, I believe, all belong to a genus I have named Pterophylla. 



3 Voyage, &c. ii. 16. Westw. Arc. Ent. PLATE II. 



4 Brit. Ent. t. 154. * Qliv. Entomolog. i. no. 8. 17. 



