Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-04-03
INSECTS AS ACTORS.
CREATURES THAT CHANGE IN AP
pEARANcE TO ELUDE ENEMIES.
Even the Lovely Butterfly Is Up to Tricks
Moths That Try to Look as II They Hat
Rec stinss-Ants Copied by Spiders-A
Caterpillar's Fierce Disguise.


All creation below man is in state OF
war; and any creature that cannot take
care of itself quickly falls an unpitied vic
tim. Those that have teeth or claws o.
stings fight with them, and those that
have none of these are driven to seek safe
ty by aping the appearance and manner
of some better endowed relative. Butter
flies in general are most helpless crea
lures, but some of them are possessed of o
peculiar defense. They have bad taste.
Birds that try to eat them find themselves
made i'll and naturally stop the feast.
Now, the uniform of such butterfly is
valuable protection, and the sweet and
edible butterflies that live in the same
fields avail themselves of it. II the favored
fly is red, some butterflies that ought per
haps to be yellow are found arrayed in Ii
shade Of red which is a pretty close match
of the one copied. If the poisonous, one
has marked spot on his wings, the imi-
tator will grow spot somewhat like 1t,
and even when the first has so distinctive
a mark as a swallow tail wing the poor
hunted cousin is not discouraged, but
sticks out an imitation spike at the end OF
his wing in the hope of deceiving the eye
of the ever watchful sparrow who is after
him.
1t is not every individual of a hunted
species that changes in this way. Ii they
all changed, the birds would soon discover
the trick and it would become useless
Sometimes when the hunted species is a
large one it is not safe even for those that
do change all to copy the same poisonous
species. So sometimes they are found
copying two or even three different spe-
cies. In this case the eggs that are laid
by female of any of the colors will
hatch out into all the several kinds Of
flies 1t is remarkable that as the male
flies are stronger and of swifter flight
than the female and better able to take
care of themselves they do not often
change, but by keeping their original col
or serve to decoy the birds away from
their mates and to keep up the delusioD
that the imitation is intended to create.
These disguises of the butterfly are won
derful enough, but they are all in the
family, so to speak, and are far surpassed
by other insects who, not finding any safe
individual to copy among their own near
relatives, take bold step and initiate
member of an entirely different family.
There is a moth that has assumed the dis
guise of the beligerent bee quite success
fully. To do this he has himself hatched
with the down on his wings so loose that
a buzz or two shake it all off and leave
his wings transparent and gauzy like the
bees. Then be crawls around with an
imitation of bees peculiar glide and
does his best to look as if he had sting
There arc other flies that have initiated
bees more or less successfully, but none
that has gone so far to do so as this one
Mark Twain has called the ant very
much overrated bird. But if man has
highly estimated this "bird'' he has but
followed in the footsteps of nature, for the
ant is one of natures favorites. She has
made him so dry and hard and indgesti.
BILE that he requires specially constructed
animal to cat him. Hence he lives and
increases in comparative peace and is the
envy of all his neighbors He would doubt
less have many imitators If it were not
that he is so hard to copy. But he has
nevertheless found a follower in a certain
spider. Now, there is great difference
between the natural appearance of a spider
and an ant, so great that the spider, oven
if he is a long, thin, black spider, might
well be discouraged for he has eight legs,
and an ant has six, and he has two bulbs
to his body and an ant three. Yet ho is
nothing daunted. By some system of
tight lacing or other he first manages to
divide his abdominal bulb in two. He
does not get such Il waist as an ant has,
but ho makes an apparent division, which
is something. Then he walks on his. six
hind legs like an ant and waves his two
fore legs in tho air like an ant s antennn,
and, it is to be supposed, fancits himself
indigestible.
But perhaps tho most wonderful imita-
ton is where an insect copies not tho nat
ural appearance of another but his appear
anco when at work. There is Il kind of
ant in South America who makes it his
business to strip the leaves from the trees
and carry them to his nest, and tho sight
of one of these, struggling and often con
cealed under his leaf, is most common.
The ant, as stated before has few enemes
Now, there is found where this ant is com
mon kind of fly that has grown upon
its back a sort Of fin of tho general shape
of a leaf and of bright green color, SO
that as it crawls around it might we'll be
mistaken for ono of these ants under
leaf. Thus in its initiative zeal it has
created feature which is no part of the
ant it copies.
OF all these imitation warriors none is
so ambitious as one species of caterpillar
He is large, lizards like to eat him. and
be is perfectly defenseless. When he is
at rest, he is like any other caterpillar.
and no one would notice certain dark
spots on his shoulders. But touch him,
and at once he draws his head back into
his body and presents to view Il most ter
rifying dragon face. The spots on his
back now look like great saucer eyes, and
his dark head forms a beak Of most bel.
ligerent aspect. Tho whole eject is ri
diculously fierce and must be seen to be
appreciated. An innocent lizard to whom
this caterpillar was fed turned tail when
he saw the Transformation and did not
stop until H. was well hidden behind a
twig. Now York Sun.
M2.ical FINGER Rims