1900.] issECTs or the " skeat expedition." 855 



is not surprising, as the chief resistance that the ordinary large 

 Locustid can offer is that performed with its third pair of legs, 

 w-hich are incredibly powerful in some species and often armed 

 with formidable spines. Instead of resisting, it lowers its head, so 

 as to separate it from the thorax, and erects the hood. If this 

 does not cause its enemy to let it loose, its resources are at an end. 

 The sudden apparition of the vivid scarlet patch on the dull and 

 inconspicuous body of the insect may well be disconcerting to its 

 natural enemies. To a human observer it appeal's that he has 

 injured his specimen, and that some brilliantly coloured portion 

 of its internal anatomy is issuing from its neck. 



Malay Name. — The Jalor and Ehaman Malays call this and allied 

 species "Belalang Gambor," or Image Grasshopper, perhaps because 

 they recognize a likeness between it in its alarming attitude and 

 images of Buddha overshadowed by Cobras with expanded hoods. 

 A colossal statue of this kind exists in a cave-temple near Biserat. 

 When I asked for the "Belalang Gambor" at Aring, the natives 

 brought me a large Locust (Acridiam succinctum), that is known to 

 the Malays at Biserat as " Belalang Babi," or Pig Grasshopper. 



Remarks. — In the jungle near Kota Bbaru, Ehaman, I found a 

 single specimen of another species (Gapnoptera, sp. n.) which had 

 the same peculiarity of structure and attitude as this form, but 

 differed from it in that the brilliant coloration was not confined 

 to a part of the body which was concealed when the insect was at 

 rest. Its head and body were of a dull neutral green ; its tegmina 

 pale, dull translucent yellow, barred and spotted with black ; and 

 its legs magenta. Magenta was also the colour of the hood, which 

 in form and extent resembled that of the commoner species. 



The action of these two grasshoppers may be compared with that 

 of certain caterpillars, e. g. of one which is not common on pome- 

 granate trees at Biserat in the month of June. It is a fair-sized 

 form, probably belonging to the Lymantriidce, which reaches a 

 length of from 4 cm. to 6 cm. The dorsal surface is covered with 

 long hairs of a pale lemon-yellow colour, those on the 4th to 7th 

 segments being shorter and more closely set than the others. 

 Between the 4th and 5th segments a black bar of a peculiar velvety 

 appearance extends right across the body. This bar is surrounded 

 by a kind of white halo, and is almost completely concealed when 

 the caterpillar is feeding or walking ; which it does in rather a 

 peculiar manner, always resting after every few paces, and twisting 

 its body about, as if it were feeling round to see that there was 

 nothing wrong. If one blew upon the caterpillar, or irritated 

 it in any other way, it suddenly bent the anterior and posterior 

 regions of its body together, thus causing the black bar on the 

 back to become stretched and be conspicuous, and to appear like 

 a gaping, cavernous mouth, of which the bunches of hair behind 

 and before formed the jaws. The phenomenon was first pointed 

 out to me by Mr. D. T. Gwynne Vaughan, then botanist to the 

 Expedition. 



Some such cases come near to mimicry ; for the one just 



