202 Studies in Animal Behavior 



times for over an hour. The legs may be closely 

 pressed to the body so that the creature resembles 

 a stick, or they may stand out at right angles to 

 it, or be bent in any position, some in one way and 

 some in another, depending upon how they happen 

 to lie when the feint began. And no matter how 

 awkward the position, it is rigidly maintained until 

 the feint wears off. I have found that young Rana- 

 tras, the first day they emerged from the egg and 

 while their appendages were still soft and easily 

 bent, showed the same death feigning instinct as 

 the adults, although they did not persist in it for 

 so long a time. 



The water-bug Belostoma usually feigns with the 

 legs closely pressed to the thorax or else held folded 

 at right angles to the body. In Nepa, on the other 

 hand, the attitudes assumed seem to depend mainly 

 on the position of the legs just previous to the 

 death feint, so that it is difficult to distinguish a 

 feigning individual from one that is really dead. 

 Schmidt has been able to make the walking-stick 

 Carausius feign in all sorts of ungainly positions 

 which would often be maintained for hours at a 

 time. 



Death feigning does not seem to occur among the 

 lower invertebrate animals such as the Protozoa, 

 coelenterates, molluscs and worms, although some 

 of them may exhibit reactions which are prophetic 

 of this instinct. Among crustaceans the instinct in 

 its fully developed form is quite uncommon. Some 



