seized cautiously, and disabled before being swallowed."[1] This certainly seems to be very negative evidence. The well-known British Moth, Lasiocampa quercifolia, affects a resting position which "makes it appear exactly like a dead leaf. One is walking along, maybe, when his attention is attracted to a dead brown leaf hanging on a blackthorn bush, suspended by a slender stalk, and swaying to and fro in the air with every passing breeze. You feel satisfied it can be nothing but a rich purplish-brown leaf, and yet your trained eye is hardly satisfied; and as you slowly take in the outline, and put your finger beneath the supposed stalk of the leaf, another slender stalk is gradually pushed up, and a Lappet Moth dangles from your finger.'[2] Here the expression "trained eye" of the entomologist would suggest a more developed "trained eye" of the moth's natural enemies, and hence any theory of protective mimicry is much discounted. Should such a theory be advanced, the instance would probably be more applicable to conscious or active mimicry, to be discussed later on. The same author gives a subsequent illustration which seems capable of the same comment. Another of our moths (Orgyia antiqua) has an apterous female, and in this condition, "seated on her cocoon after emergence, she looks so exactly like a Spider that only practical entomologists recognize her; she lays her eggs on the web, and never stirs."[3] Dr. Sharp has remarked on the eggs of Phasmidæ that nearly everyone who mentions them speaks of their extreme resemblance to seeds. "Goldie has suggested that this is for the purpose of deceiving Ichneumons; it is, however, on record that the eggs are actually destroyed by Ichneumons." Not only do the eggs have a history like that of seeds, and resemble them in appearance, but their capsule, in minute structure, greatly resembles vegetable tissue.[4] Again he states:—"The egg of a Phasmid has not only a general resemblance in size, shape, colour, and external texture to a seed, but the anatomical characters of certain seeds are reproduced on
- ↑ 'The Colours of Animals,' p. 246.
- ↑ J.W. Tutt, 'British Moths,' pp. 61–2.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 91.—The italics are our own. "Practical entomologists," in the struggle for existence, and in the sense here meant, naturally includes the insect's enemies, whose sustenance depends upon their practical knowledge.
- ↑ 'Cambridge Nat. Hist.' vol. v. p. 265.
