THE WAYS OF LIFE 



231 



state ; one limb may be cut off after another, and it gives 

 not the shghtest reaction. As Darwin noted, the attitude 

 is often not at all hke the death-attitude. The phenomenon 

 may be exhibited by a decapitated insect. There seems 

 reason, then, to agree with Bohn that in Crustaceans and 

 Insects the so-called death- 

 feigning is an exaggeration of 

 the ' differential sensitiveness ' 

 of simpler animals. 



In the water-insect known 

 as the water-scorpion {Rana- 

 tra), there is a marked ' death- 

 feigning ', but it is exhibited 

 only in the air, which the 

 American species, at any rate, 

 rarely visits. It is so pro- 

 nounced, both in young and 

 adult forms, that the creature 

 can be cut in two without 

 any response, but it is diffi- 

 cult to see that it can be of 

 any value. Mr. S. J. Holmes 

 writes : — 



Fia. 43. — An insect — Carassius 

 — standing on its head 

 in the ' cataleptic ' or 

 ' death-feigning ' state. 

 A little less than natural 

 size. (After Schmidt.) 



' One is strongly incHned to 

 believe that the death-feint, which is manifested oidy 

 when the insect is in the air, is rather an incidental 

 result of certain physiological pecuharities of the organism 

 than an instinct which has been built up by Natural 

 Selection for the benefit of the species '. 



' Bluffing '. — Every one knows how the cat that is 

 chased by an impudent dog suddenly turns and ' stands 



