386 IN LOfVER FLORIDA IVILDS 



of color on the bark joined a lighter patch and im- 

 mediately, as though it noticed its mistake, it 

 moved over to the lighter color which more nearly 

 harmonized with it. One of these sitting on the 

 smooth trunk of a tree looks exactly like.a small 

 piece of its bark which has become loosened and 

 turned up; this is probably just what the insect 

 intends to simulate. Since I have learned its 

 trick I have been deceived by it repeatedly. 

 Pyrrhanma portia, one of our large butterflies with 

 gorgeous crimson or scarlet wings, attempts almost 

 exactly the same trick but it does not quite so com- 

 pletely conceal itself. 



There is a handsome, slender winged butterfly 

 common in our hammocks and shaded areas (Heli- 

 conias charitonius), our only member of a large 

 family belonging to the American tropics. <.Its 

 wings are jet black, with irregular diagonal ydlow 

 bars. They have a peculiar trembling flight and 

 on account of their abundance are the most con- 

 spicuous insect ornament of our forests. One day 

 while sitting by one of the pools in my hammock 

 I saw half a dozen of them hanging to a strand of 

 long moss and apparently dead. The closed wings 

 hung straight down with a decidedly limp appear- 



