St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-11-29

sets. 1 was snort distance Den4nul
when l heard her call me; on my
Fastening to her she showed me what T.
thought was little branch in a tin cup.I
just as / was going to. ask what there.
was curious or Interesting about it,
some little twigs on the side of the!
branch began to move, and imme-
diately thought it must be walkingi
stick, of which had read, but neverI
until then seen. believe my friend:
said there, were but three varieties of
this insect il. North America.
'Any warm day in summer, When'
you boys are playing in the yard on
orchard, you can see some very striking
examples of this mimetic power; Imean,,
locusts. These locusts on the upper
row have wing-cases of dusty color.i
| caught them one noon in the middle.
of North street. When they were rest;
ing could not tell the difference be-
tween them and the road, but as soon
as they spread their wings / could see
and catch them.n
Here's one all yellow
Eyes; that one / found in q marsh
down at Ocean Park, where all the
weeds and the soil were of a yelloWish
hue. just look at the difference be-
tween this and the first one. This one
has white wings, with black line
across them; the body is white, and the
Wing-cas look as if sand had been
sprinkled over them. These came from
the beach between Old Orchard and
Ocean Park. If their wings were folded
it would be very difficult to distinguish
them from the dry white sand
watched long time one day to see if Il
could find any on the sand, and fire.
quently was astonished to have one
fly up in my face when had just looked
carefully over the place where. it had
| been lying.
Here is Turner's butterfly. If
some time in spring you should see ond
of these on the ground and not know
what it was, you would be likely to say,
as did the time saw one: 'Oh, what
a pretty leaf with black lines on it,
and you would be very much astonished,
as was, to see it fly away.
.'This Philodice butterfly is so yellow
that if you were to see it on tdande-
lion you would be puzzled to know
where the dandelion left off and the
/ butterfly began, or vice versa. Ii q
Vanessa Antiope butterfly was on an
apple tree q have noticed they prefer
russell apple trees), with its wings
closed, / could not-tell which was the
/ bark or which the under side of the
butterfly, were it not for slow, wav-
ing motion of the wings, as if it were
tanning itself.
Zone day, when was hurrying up
| North street, [ saw. as [ thought, q
brown leaf drop down at my side from
one of the trees. What pretty leaf;
1 oh!' and, running after a very pretty
butterfly, / waited till it settled, put my
hat over, and so caught it. Look at its
under side, boys, aud you will see it
might easily be mistaken for leaf.
"These purplish, clear-winged, day
flying hunming- bird moths feed on the
big thistle heads, and it requires seeing
eyes to discover them.
beetles have this mimetic power to
a great extent, but have only few to-
show you, This one looks like little
ball of dirt. Sometimes this kind OF
beetle is mistaken for a ball of dirt, and
/ sometimes the dirt for the beetle.
81 wonder if, when you have been
eating blackberries, you have suddenly
noted a sharp, disagreeable taste IN
your mouth?'
81 have said John, land a mighty
disagreeable taste it was, too
80 have /, said Lincoln.
well, perhaps you know, then,
that you have eaten a BURBERRY bug.
This is about the size, shape and color
of green blueberry, and if you were
eating your berries in the pasture. moth
ing would be more likely than that you
should eat some bugs, too.
Il have only one more example OF
mimetic beetles here, and this is the
painted clytus, which lives ON the
! golden-rod. 1t is marked with green
and yellow, thus mimicking the color OF
the flower.
Perhaps you are wondering why in
sects have this powerP I think chat the
Creator gave it to them 50 they might
escape from enemies that were not
bright enough to see through it. =
Eyofo,, IEo,,tro,31 o,.3i IN Christian Li?llO3L