856 MB. NELSON ANNANDALE ON THE [Dec. 4, 



mentioned differs but little in essentials from that of the Sphinx 

 larvae, which bring into prominence the eye-like markings on their 

 sides when alarmed, and thus seem to mimic small reptiles or 

 mammals. One such caterpillar 1 is not uncommon in Nawnchik and 

 Patalung during April. It feeds on a species of Caladium 2 growing 

 in marshy localities, and is generally found on the underside of 

 the broad leaves, in the shadow of which it may easily be mistaken 

 for a small gecko which has lost its tail ; though geckos do not 

 live in the marshes, and though its eye-spots are perfectly round, 

 more like the eyes of a snake than those of a gecko in the daytime. 



In some cases structures which are alarming at one stage of an 

 animal's existence may be mimetic or protective at another. The 

 case of the larva of our English Lobster Moth (Stauropus fagiy, 

 which in its youth is said to mimic an ant, is so well known that 

 I need only refer to it. In lower Siam there is a common cater- 

 pillar, of what family it is impossible to say, which has a series of 

 curious long, flattened processes rising in three rows from the 

 dorsal surface of the anterior part of the body. When the animal is 

 walking these structures are kept in constant motion. They may be 

 supposed to alarm its enemies by their movements, and certainly 

 they give the full-grown caterpillar no aid by concealing it or by 

 making it resemble any other animal. But I have been completely 

 deceived by a very young specimen of this form. It was hanging 

 by a thread from a tree, and looked so extremely spider-like as 

 it hung, that I captured it to add to our collection of spiders. 

 Nor was I undeceived before the insect was in my spirit-tube ; 

 for in the Malay jungle there are many Araneids with elongated 

 abdomens. 



An animal which is habitually of an alarming appearance may 

 even lose this appearance periodically. At Aring, one afternoon 

 in the beginning of September, a caterpillar nearly allied to 

 Stauropus fagi, and probably belonging to the same genus, came 

 under my notice. When first I saw it I mistook it for a bird's 

 dropping. It was seated on the edge of a leaf of Melastoma 

 polyanthum, with the anterior and posterior regions of its body bent 

 towards one another, with the true legs folded together upon the 

 under surface of the thorax, and the abdominal feet firmly 

 clutching the edge of the leaf. The body was bent over so that 

 one side lay on the upper surface of the leaf, parallel to the 

 mid-rib. The insect was motionless. Its skin was smooth and 

 shiny ; intense black in colour, except for some vivid white 

 markings about the middle of the body. The likeness to a bird's 

 dropping was not exact, because these white markings were at the 



' The Malays do not appear to have any superstitious dread of this cater- 

 pillar, such as is felt by the Irish for that of the Elephant Hawk Moth 

 (Chcerocampa elpenor), a form to which it bears a close resemblance. For the 

 Irish beliefs with regard to the caterpillar, see Miss Ormerod's Reports, 1898, 

 pp. 72-73. 



2 The "Kladi mabok" or Sick Caladium, so called because, unlike some other 

 species, it is inedible. 



3 See Poulton, Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xxvi. pi. 40, and ' Colours of Animals.' 



