COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



of insects which rest during the day clinging to 

 the bark of dead or fallen trees ; and the greater 

 portion of these are delicately mottled with gray 

 and brown tints, which though symmetrically 

 disposed and infinitely varied, yet blend so com- 

 pletely with the usual colours of the bark, that 

 at two or three feet distance they are quite in- 

 distinguishable." Moths, which when resting 

 expose the upper surfaces of their wings, have 

 these dull coloured. Butterflies, on the other 

 hand, which rest with their wings raised perpen- 

 dicularly and laid together so as to show only 

 the under surfaces, have the upper surfaces bril- 

 liantly coloured, while the exposed under sur- 

 faces are dusky and inconspicuous — or even 

 marked in imitation of leaves. Mr. Wallace 

 describes an East Indian butterfly whose wings 

 are superbly tinted with blue and orange : this 

 butterfly is a very swift flyer and is never known 

 to settle save among the dead leaves in the dry 

 forests which it frequents. When settled, with 

 its wings raised, it imitates a shrivelled leaf so 

 perfectly that even the keen eye of the natural- 

 ist can hardly detect it. This protective colour- 

 ing is found throughout the whole immense 

 order to which belong grasshoppers, crickets, 

 and locusts ; the most remarkable instance be- 

 ing furnished by the so-called " walking-leaf," 

 to which no description can do justice. On the 

 other hand, hornets, bees, and wasps, which are 



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