is possibly a recent introduction here,[1] as it has lately appeared in enormous numbers, especially during the war period, when most people were absent from their houses and gardens in Johannesburg. It is a rather large insect, and from the damage it does to many plants, including dahlias, roses, salvias, wistarias, the young shoots of Japanese privet, and even of almond and apricot trees, it readily attracts attention. Like so many of its kind, it is possessed of a most unpleasant smell—a smell of a nastiness and penetration surpassing that possessed by any other insect I am acquainted with. Moreover, it has the power, which it seldom neglects to use when opportunity offers, of squirting out, apparently with some accuracy of aim, a most offensive and disgusting fluid, which appears to be the source of the unpleasant smell referred to.
In spite of its size this insect is not readily seen unless looked for. Its angular outline and general colouration are distinctly protective, and, although strong on the wing, it has the habit, like some other protectively coloured insects, of letting go its hold of a plant, and dropping to the ground, where it lies perfectly still in whatever position it has fallen. It is then very difficult to distinguish among dead leaves, twigs, and pebbles. From its extremely offensive smell, and its abundance in every garden, I was inclined to infer that it must be unpalatable to ordinary enemies of insects. I noticed, however, that a Lizard (Eremias sp.), of which there were many in my garden, greedily ate some of the bugs I had killed; another Lizard (Agama sp.) declined the dainty morsel, preferring to rapidly pick up the ants which had commenced swarming round the dead bugs. Afterwards I found that my fowls were very eager after the bugs, and seemed to find them very much to their liking. My next-door neighbour had for some time a tame Meerkat (Suricata tetradactyla), a little animal possessed of the keenest sense of smell, and it also readily ate these bugs.
The fact that this bug is eaten by various creatures is, of course, what one might expect from a knowledge of its habits and colouration. It is very probable that its disgusting smell does afford it a certain amount of protection from enemies—indeed, it would be hard to account for such highly developed offensiveness except on some such ground of utility; but it is clearly a case where, to quote Mr. Distant's words, odoriferous protection proves of a "highly partial and uncertain character."—Harold Fry (Rock House, Johannesburg).
- ↑ A common Transvaal insect, which I always found about Pretoria.—Ed.
