180 



MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



plants, living, decaying, and dead ; some in their colour, and 

 some both in their colour and shape. The caterpillar of a 

 moth (Hadena Ligustri) that feeds upon the privet is so 

 exactly of the colour of the underside of the leaf, upon which 

 it usually sits in the day-time, that you may have the leaf 

 in your hand and yet not discover it. 1 — The tribe of grass- 

 hoppers, called LocustcB by Fabricius, though the true Locust 

 does not belong to it, in the veining, colour, and texture of 

 their elytra, resemble green leaves. 2 — The tribe of Phasmina 

 — named praying-insects and spectres — also of the Orthoptera 

 order, often exhibit the same peculiarity. — Others of them, 

 by the spots and mixtures of colour observable in these organs, 

 represent leaves that are decaying in various degrees. — Those 

 of several species of Mantidce likewise imitate dry leaves, and 

 so exactly, by their opacity, colour, rigidity, and veins, that, 

 were no other part of the animal visible even after a close 

 examination, it would be generally affirmed to be nothing 

 but a dry leaf. Of this nature is the Phyllium siccifolium, 

 and two or three Brazilian species in my cabinet, that seem 

 undescribed, which I will show you when you give me an 

 opportunity. But these imitations of dry leaves are not 

 confined to the Orthoptera order solely. Amongst the He- 

 miptera, the Phyllomorpha parodoxa, a kind of bug, surprised 

 Sparrman not a little. He was sheltering himself from the 

 mid-day sun when the air was so still and calm as scarcely to 

 shake an aspen leaf, and saw with wonder what he mistook 

 for a little withered, pale, crumpled leaf, eaten as it were by 

 caterpillars, fluttering from the tree. The sight appeared to 

 him so very extraordinary, that he left his place of shelter to 

 contemplate it more nearly ; and could scarcely believe his 

 eyes, when he beheld a living insect, in shape and colour 

 resembling a fragment of a withered leaf with the edges 

 turned up and eaten away as it were by caterpillars, and at 

 the same time all over beset with prickles. 3 — A British insect, 

 one of our largest moths (Gastropacha quercifolia), called 



1 Brahm, Insekten Kalender, ii. 383. 



2 Hence we have Locusta citrifolia, laurifolia, camellifolia, myrtifolia, salvifolia, 

 &c, which, I believe, all belong to a genus I have named Ptcrophylla. 



3 Voyage, &c. ii. 16. Westw. Arc, Ent. Plate II. 



