STRICTLY INCOG. 53 



ordinary observer, but even the scientific and systematic 

 naturalist. 



A few selected instances of such successful masquerading 

 will perhaps best serve to introduce the general principles 

 upon which all animal mimicry ultimately depends. In- 

 deed, naturalists of late years have been largely employed 

 in fishing up examples from the ends of the earth and from 

 the depths of the sea for the elucidation of this very subject. 

 There is a certain butterfly in the islands of the Malay 

 Archipelago (its learned name, if anybody wishes to be 

 formally introduced, is Kallima paralekta) which always 

 rests among dead or dry leaves, and has itself leaf-like 

 wings, all spotted over at intervals with wee speckles to 

 imitate the tiny spots of fungi on the foliage it resembles. 

 The well-known stick and leaf insects from the same rich 

 neighbourhood in like manner exactly mimic the twigs 

 and leaves of the forest among which they lurk : some of 

 them look for all the world like little bits of walking 

 bamboo, while others appear in all varieties of hue, as if 

 opening buds and full-blown leaves and pieces of yellow 

 foliage sprinkled with the tints and moulds of decay had of 

 a sudden raised themselves erect upon six legs, and begun 

 incontinently to perambulate the Malayan woodlands like 

 vegetable Frankensteins in all their glory. The larva of 

 one such deceptive insect, observed in Nicaragua by sharp- 

 eyed Mr. Belt, appeared at first sight like a mere fragment of 

 the moss on which it rested, its body being all prolonged into 

 little thread-like green filaments, precisely imitating the 

 foliage around it. Once more, there are common flies which 

 secure protection for themselves by growing into the counter- 

 feit presentment of wasps or hornets, and so obtaining 

 immunity from the attacks of birds or animals. Many of 

 these curiously mimetic insects are banded with yellow and 

 black hi the very image of their stinging originals, and 



