208 THE TROPICA!. WORLD. 



the enemies which every creature has to encounter, we may 

 naturally expect to find the insects extremely well provided 

 with both passive and active means of defence. 



Many so closely resemble in colour the soil or object on 

 which they are generally found, as to escape even the eye of 

 a hungry enemy. The wings of several Brazilian moths ap- 

 pear like withered leaves that have been gnawed round their 

 margins by insects ; and when these moths are disturbed, instead 

 of flying away, they fall upon the ground like the leaf which 

 they resemble, so that it is difficult, if not impossible, on such 

 occasions to know what they really are. 



The illusion is still more complete when the likeness of 

 form is joined to that of colour, as in the 

 walking-leaf and walking-stick insects. 

 Some, of an enormous length, look so 

 exactly like slender dead twigs covered 

 with bark, that their insect nature can 

 only be discovered by mere accident — 

 upon being handled the)^ feign death, and 

 their legs are often knobbed, like the 

 withered buds of trees ; some resemble 

 living twigs, and are green ; others such 

 as are decayed, and are therefore coloured 

 brown ; the wings of many put on the resemblance of dry and 

 crumpled leaves, while those of others are vivid green — in exact 

 accordance with the plants they respectively inhabit. This 

 highly remarkable family consists of the herbivorous Phasmas 

 and Phylliums — the former of w^hich have a thin twig-like 

 shape, while the latter have an enlarged body — and of the car- 

 niverous Mantides, or soothsayers. As the Mantis is slow and 

 without much muscular energy, and its organisation requires a 

 large supply of food. Nature has disguised it under the form 

 of a plant, the better to deceive its victims. Like a cat ap- 

 proaching a mouse, it moves almost imperceptibly along, and 

 steals towards its prey, fearful of putting it to flight. When 

 sufficiently near, the fore legs are suddenly darted out to their 

 full length, and seize the doomed insect, which vainly en- 

 deavours to extricate itself; the formation of the fore leg 

 enabling the tibia to be so closed on the sharp edgQ of the 

 thigh as to amputate any slender substance brought within its 



PHYLLIUM. 



