as RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS, 73 
eaters are kept off by their bad odour and taste, but 
are sufficiently invisible at night when it is of impor- 
tance that their prey should not become aware of their 
proximity. 
It. seems probable that in some cases that which 
would appear at first to be a source of danger to its 
possessor may really be a means of protection. Many 
showy and weak-flying butterflies have a very broad 
expanse of wing, as in the brilliant blue Morphos of 
Brazilian forests, and the large Eastern Papilios; yet 
these groups are tolerably plentiful. Now, specimens 
of these butterflies are often captured with pierced and 
broken wings, as if they had been seized by birds from 
whom they had escaped; but if the wings had been 
much smaller in proportion to the body, it seems pro- 
bable that the insect would be more frequently struck 
or pierced in a vital part, and thus the increased ex- 
_panse of the wings may have been indirectly beneficial. 
In other cases the capacity of increase in a species is 
so great that however many of the perfect insect may 
be destroyed, there is always ample means for the con- 
tinuance of the race. Many of the flesh flies, gnats, 
ants, palm-tree weevils and locusts are in this cate- 
gory. The whole family of Cetoniade or rose chafers, 
so full of gaily-coloured species, are probably saved 
from attack by a combination of characters. They fly 
very rapidly with a zigzag or waving course; they hide 
themselves the moment they alight, either in the corolla - 
of flowers, or in rotten wood, or in cracks and hollows 
of trees, and they are generally encased in a very hard 
