MIMICRY 155 



they are about half-an-inch long, but are most brilliant with 

 scarlet, blue and green. Be careful, however, how you handle 

 them, for their scent is anything but agreeable ; and, notwith- 

 standing their gay colours, they are, after all, a species of bug. 

 A beetle which I have often noticed in the woods is an insect 

 an inch and a half long, but with a very long slender proboscis, 

 with which it appears to pierce the bark of the stems on which 

 it rests ; I think it feeds on the juices of the bush or tree, and 

 is probably a species of weevil (Eupholus sp ?). 



Mimicry, however, is not confined to Madagascar animals, but 

 also occurs among plants. Mr Baron says : " In some marshy 

 ground on the top of Ankaratra mountain, I found a small 

 whitish orchid, a few specimens of which I gathered. After 

 getting about half-a-dozen, I discovered, to my great surprise, 

 that some of them were labiate plants. I was utterly deceived, 

 thinking it was the same plant I was gathering all the time, so 

 exactly alike were the two species in almost all outward appear- 

 ances. I felt at once convinced that this was a case of mimicry. 

 At the east foot of the mountain I discovered a similar pheno- 

 menon, in a large labiate plant (Salvia), strikingly similar to 

 another orchid. No doubt the labiate in each case mimics the 

 orchid, not vice versa, in order to ensure fertilisation." 



In one of our rambles near the large patch of old forest which 

 still remains near the L.M.S. sanatorium at Ambatovdry I 

 came one day across a cluster of very large earthworms ; at 

 first sight these looked more like a number of small snakes than 

 worms, as they were at least three times the size of any English 

 worms, having about as large a diameter as a good-sized man's 

 finger. They are not, however, very common, as I have only 

 seen them on that one occasion ; so they probably do not play 

 the same important part in the renewal of the soil here as Mr 

 Darwin has shown is done by earthworms in Europe. 



Anyone who walks through the forest will notice at points 

 where the paths branch off a pile of bracken, branches of trees, 

 moss, etc. These heaps, as well as those of stones in similar 

 positions in the open country, are known as fdnataovana. These 

 have been formed by passers-by throwing a stick or stone on the 

 heap, for luck, expressing the hope that, if on a journey, they 

 may have a safe return, as well as success in their undertakings. 

 A similar custom prevails in the eastern parts of Africa, and 



