OF THE AMAZON VALLEY. 
509 
the coloured tips of these wings, when they are closed, resembling a section of the 
wood. Other Moths are deceptively like the excrement of hirds on leaves. I met 
with a species of Phytophagous Beetle (Chlamys pilula) on the Amazons, which was 
undistinguishable by the eye from the dung of Caterpillars on foliage. These two 
latter cases of imitation should be carefully considered by those who would be in- 
clined to think that the object of mimetic analogies in nature was simply variety, 
beauty, or ornament: nevertheless these are certainly attendants on the phenomena; 
some South- American Cassidce resemble glittering drops of dew on the tips of leaves, 
owing to their burnished pearly gold colour. Some species of Longicorn Coleoptera 
(Onychocerus scorpio and concentricus) have precisely the colour and sculpture of tin 
bark of the particular species of tree on which each is found. It is remarkable that 
other species of the same small group of Loiigicomes (Phacellocera Buquetii, Cy- 
clopeplm JBatesii) counterfeit, not inanimate objects, like their near kindred just cited, 
but other insects, in the same way as the Leptalkles do the Helicon idee. 
Amongst the living objects mimicked by insects are the predacious species from which 
it is the interest of the mimickers to be concealed. Thus, the species of Scaphura 
^ 
& 
of Crickets 1 } in South America resemble in a wonderful manner different Sand 
of 
"Wasps of large size, which are constantly on the search for Crickets to provision their 
nests with. Another pretty Cricket, which I observed, was a good imitation of a Tiger 
Beetle *, and was always found on trees frequented by the Beetles ( Odo.t tocheilce) . 
There are endless instances of predacious insects being disguised by having similar 
shapes and colours to those of their prey ; many Spiders are thus endowed : but some 
hunting Spiders mimic flower-buds, and station themselves motionless in the axils 
leaves and other parts of plants to wait for their victims. 
The most extraordinary instance of imitation I ever met with was that of a very 
large Caterpillar, which stretched itself from amidst the foliage of a tree which I was 
one day examining, and startled me by its resemblance to a smaU Snake. The first three 
segments behind the head were dilatable at the will of the insect, and had on each side 
a large black pupillated spot, which resembled the eye of the reptile : it was a poisonous 
or viperine species mimicked, and not an innocuous or colubrine Snake ; this was proved 
by the imitation of keeled scales on the crown, which was produced by the recumbent 
feet, as the Caterpillar threw itself backwards. The Eev. Joseph Greene, to whom I gave 
a description, supposes the insect to have belonged to the family Xotodotitidce, many of 
which have the habit of thus bending themselves. I carried off the Caterpillar, and 
alarmed every one in the village where I was then living, to whom I showed it. It 
unfortunately died before reaching the adult state. 
p. 164). The author enumerates many very singular cases of mimicry ; he also states his belief that the mimicry is 
intended to protect the insects from their enemies. *.••«** .«-„ *. 
is an interesting note, by the Rev. Joseph Greene, in the 'Zoologist, I8a6 p. 50/3, on the autumn and 
winter Moths of England, whose colours are shown by the author to be adapted to the prevailing tints of nature m 
the season in which the species appear. ; \ m 
* A remarkable instance of deceptive analogy relating to a Cricket and a species of Cmndela is described by West- 
There 
Lin 
Westwood has enumerated many curious 
analogy 
