CONSCIOUS PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE. 551 



5 That is to say, where the high cerebral development exists which 

 would, according to W. L. Distant, tend to produce mimicry and 

 protective resemblances, precisely there these adaptations are lowly 

 developed as compared with Insecta, where we meet with far less intel- 

 ligence and far more of the unvarying repetitions of pure instinct, 

 incapable of improvement by learning, and, within their rigid limits, 

 too perfect to require it. Where the conditions are most favourable 

 for " active mimicry," mimetic and cryptic adaptations are least 

 prominent ; where they are least favourable, these adaptations become 

 most conspicuous. 



6 So far as I have been able to collect evidence, Kallima does not 

 rest on dry and withered leaves, but in situations, such as trunks and 

 branches, in which dead leaves would not attract attention. H. J. Elwes 

 has stated that it freely expands its wings when settled, and looks any- 

 thing but leaf- like ; but this is probably when it is thoroughly on the 

 alert, during the short pauses between successive flights. C. Swinhoe 

 has informed me that it invariably rests head downwards, like a dead 

 leaf hanging by its stalk, so that all the figures and preparations seen 

 in this country representing its natural attitude are wrong.* 



It is quite impossible to explain the protective attitude of this or 

 any other insect on the principle of " active mimicry," unless we are 

 going arbitrarily to assume chat certain defensive activities are to be 

 explained in this way, while others, equally necessary and equally 

 elaborate, cannot be thus interpreted. Consider, for instance, the 

 concealment often brought by the cocoon — the selection of an appro- 

 priate situation, the building into the walls of a part of the surrounding 

 surface, &c, &c. Upon the principle of " active mimicry," "the view 

 would be, I suppose, that the ancestral larva spun a cocoon which was 

 not much of a success, and was in consequence attacked by enemies ; 

 that the larva observed these attacks, and accordingly improved its 

 cocoon. But that is not the way in which the struggle for existence is 

 waged with insects. If the larva failed, it failed, and that would be 

 the end of the matter. It has no chance of improvement ; it has no 

 opportunity of learning by experience. Its only chance of survival is 

 to avoid experience of foes altogether ; experience is the most danger- 

 ous thing in the world for an edible insect. This becomes still more 

 obvious when we remember that failure or success is almost always 

 determined long after the cocoon is made. The caterpillar, perhaps, 

 spins the cocoon in autumn, but the real stress of competition will 

 come in winter, when insect-eating animals are pressed hard with 

 hunger, and search high and low for food. But the caterpillar is by 



* Cf. Eha, ' Natural Science,' vol. ix. p. 299.— Ed. 



