( 1 ) 



any rate give colour to the belief that they are largely 

 defensive and probably often offensive characters : the secre- 

 tions and odours are certainly more than sexual in many of 

 the Hemiptera, especially in the Pentatomidie, Acanthiidse and 

 Reduviida?. Before leaving this part of our subject it is well to 

 bear in mind that we cannot in any way argue as to the pleasant- 

 ness or unpleasantness of a smell to other animals from the 

 effect it has upon ourselves ; a dog for instance will take great 

 delight in substances and smells which to us would be most 

 revolting, while the cat tribe, from the lion downwards, will 

 show the most effusive pleasure over scents which a dog 

 will turn away from in disgust : if any one doubts this, let 

 him offer a lion a piece of paper soaked with lavender- 

 water : and, if the tastes of the higher animals are so different, 

 we cannot say that we know anything of the tastes of the 

 lower animals, and it is quite likely that the sweet scent of 

 Aromia or Callichromia may be most nauseous or even harmful 

 to their enemies. 



8. A large number of insects resemble the droj)pings of 

 birds — sometimes the splash of a dropping falling from a height 

 like many of the geometrid moths as they sit on trunks or 

 leaves in a wood,* sometimes freshly-deposited droppings like 

 the larva? or pupae of several of the Theclre or Hairstreak butter- 

 flies : in the case of Coleoptera, Mr. Champion tells me that 

 species of the large genus Chlamys so closely resemble the drop- 

 pings of caterpillars that inexperienced people will not believe 

 that they are anything else, even when they are pointed out 

 to them : the species of the weevil Clonus form good examples : 

 the small Longicorn Desmophora farhiosa described by Bates 

 from Panama may also be mentioned, and several species also 

 of the Melolonthid genus Cerasjns: one of the best instances of 

 aggressive resemblances in insects is afforded by the spider 

 described by Forbes ( a A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern 

 Archipelago," p. 63) : seeing a Lycrenid butterfly settled on 

 what was apparently a bird-dropping, he approached it gently 

 and seized it, when the body came off in his hand : at first he 

 thought it had been caught by the glutinous matter, but on 

 closer examination he found that the supposed dropping was a 



* Professor Poulton, "The Colours of Animals," p. 57. 



