196 



ENTOMOLOGY 



tectively colored front wings. The caterpillars of Basilarchia archippus 

 and Papilio thoas, as well as other larvae and not a few moths, resemble 

 closely the excrements of birds. Numerous grass-eating caterpillars are 

 striped with green, as is also a sphingid species (Ellema harrisii) that 

 lives among pine needles. ' The large green sphinx caterpillars (Fig. 66) 

 perhaps owe their inconspicuousness partly to their oblique lateral 

 stripes, which cut a mass of green into smaller areas. The caterpillar 

 of Schizura ipomcece (Fig. 245), which is green with brown patches, rests 

 for hours along the eaten or torn edge of a basswood leaf, in which posi- 



FIG. 245. Caterpillar of Schizura ipomcece clinging to a torn leaf. Natural size. 



tion it bears an extremely deceptive resemblance to the partially dead 

 border of a leaf. The weevils that drop to the ground and remain 

 immovable are often indistinguishable to the collector on account of 

 their likeness to bits of soil or little pebbles. Everyone has noticed 

 the extent to which some of the grasshoppers resemble the soil in color. 

 The Carolina locust, Dissosteira Carolina, which varies greatly in 

 color, ranging from ashy gray to yellowish or to reddish brown, is 

 commonly found on soil of its own color. Along the Atlantic coast, the 

 seaside locust, Trimerotropis maritima^ is practically invisible against 

 the gray sand of the seashore, to which it restricts itself. The same 

 species of grasshopper occurs inland also, as in Illinois and Michigan, 

 along the shores of lakes, and is then pale brown., like the sands that it 



