THE INSECT WORLD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1020, 10 July 1930, Page 10

THE INSECT WORLD

| CAMOUFLAGE METHODS USED WALKING TWIGS, FLYING LEAVES J Bv means of intricate devices, costly chemicals, and much ingenuity man has been able to make paper flowers, synthetic fruit, and machines that fly like the birds even if they do not resemble them. Man has great imitative ability provided only that he can use the chemical, vegetable, and mineral worlds for sources of supply. Individually he cannot change his appearance enough to fool even the dullest enemy haunting his trail, not even to save his life. Nature has treated her insects better in the matter of providing them with more imitative ability than has been given man. So complete, in some instances, has been this knowledge as to how to look like something else, that it ■was not until very recently that scientists have been able to even find them, for many have not been classified, or even placed in museums. A world of strange insects exists in the tropical countries almost unknown to the expert entomologists, chiefly because these same insects have an almost uncanny ability to imitate the plants, the trees, the leaves, and the inanimate things about them. Arthur H. Fisher, an American : naturalist, recently returned from long months in the jungles of New Guinea and the Amazon Basin of Brazil, captured, after long, patient watching, a few samples of these- Imitative creatures hitherto unknown to modern man. Pushing his way through the taugled growth of the tropical forest j he was surrounded by countless j strange and wonderful creatures, | some of them minute, hut many true j leviathans of the insect world. Watching closely he would occasionally see a large twig separate from its neighbours and walk away in the most j mysterious manner. Then, again, he would see a green leaf suddenly become an animated thing, and fly away and attach itself to a nearby group. Under such circumstances if he moved quickly, he could capture a rare “walking stick” and the leaf might prove to be another species of the same group, or perhaps a katydid "with a camouflage complex developed beyond belief. The restless native or the untrained observer moving through the tropical growth would easily pass by grasshoppers and katydids as walking sticks a foot in length, and all within the grasp of his hand, yet be absolutely unaware of their existence, so perfect is the insects’ ability to simulate the leaf or twig. Such miracles are only possible in the tropical jungles and could never happen in our own temperate zones. The warm regions around the centre circumference of the earth are ideal for the growth of insects. There Is no winter, no spring, and no autumn. There is only perpetual summer. Every day is like every other day, and every tomorrow will be like yesterday. Under such conditions, harmless and dangerous insects develop along gigantic lines. The fighting bugs are generally not so numerous as they are aggressive, according to this naturalist. They* have a high degree of efficiency anfc are prepared to battle, and thus wage constant warfare on men. But in the tropical forests there are hundreds of insects that are shy and retiring and do ujt intrude themselves upon man. They hide by imitating the growths all about them, and for this reason they are rarely found. Mr. Fisher says that he has seen a huge butterfly whose upper wing surfaces reflect lights ill gorgeous colours, suddenly alight with folded wings against a background of neutral browns, to appear instantly as a dead OC7 dying leaf, or even perhaps strikingly to mimic some forest creature f«ued by enemies of the butterfly. This remarkable sense of simulation and mimicry, and ability to camouflage •and fade into the distinct backgrounds i of their chosen environment is their ■ best protection both from devouring j by their enemies and even from cap- j ture by man. A katydid may pause amid the brilliaut greeu leaves of the bush. It is equipped by Nature to imitate, there to remain motionless, its antennae extended to the branch, to simulate further the tendrils of the true leaf it seeks to portray. Colour texture and even the delicate and intricate veins of the adjoining letters are reproduced. Possibly the most unusually successful of the imitative insects is the leaf-like walking stick from Ceylou, aptly named Phyllium pulchrifoliuir, which is the last word in leaf camou - flage, where even the legs are elaborately curtained with pale green pseudo-foliage. The grandfather of all the walkingstick family comes from the Amazon basin of Brazil—the giant Gladomorphus—which attains 12 inches in length. Yet so perfectly does this weird insect resemble and mimic the stems of the plants on whose foliage it feeds that but few collectors have ever brought back an adult specimen. Another giant of this grotesque tribe is the spiny horrida variety from New Guinea. This ugly, but wholly harmless, insect wisely uses its spiny protective garb in accordance with the first law of Nature, selecting its home in the forest among spiny and formidable surroundings. The fields of Nature are filled with

curious bugs of prey. Ail the fl* animals well known to tna-i have tSu? similar types in bugdom. exc ept many of the latter are much more ning. un "

Where in the animal kingdom win one find anything like the praTtor mantis, which receives its name S the habit of sitting erect on a twi7 motionless for hours, with its fron legs clasped together as if i n an .7 titude of prayerV Thus it awaits it. prey. Because of its ability to *it like a part of a branch or dried leaf it catches its prey and devours amV caterpillars. or other insects that come within reach. Another known as the rearhorse is, too, a large insect very uncommon and rarely seenbZ cause it fs very much like the folia** in colour. **

11 caicnes us prey ana devours ant. caterpillars. or other insects that come within reach. Another known as the rearhorse is, too, a large insect very uncommon and rarely seenbZ cause it fs very much like the folia** in colour. ’ ** In Java and elsewhere in the Malav Archipelago there is a related species of which little is known. It is a grea imitator and deceiver, but it is called the diabolical spectre. It is one of the most beautiful of insects, and perched in the middle of a flower clns;. ter of which it appears to be the mos* beautiful part, it waits for a butterfly or other prey to alight. In the Belgian V'so there is a great grasshopper of giant size, and from meagre reports it is claimed that it will catch mice and other small creatures Very little is really known of the life history of the giant elephant rhinoceros beetles of South America, except that they do not bite at once! This naturalist cannot tell you why these hSge beetles evolved such imposing horns. He may suggest that they use them to cut off foliage for food. These are but a few of the mysteries of insect life. The large group which embraces the grasshoppers, the katydid. crickets, mantises, cockroaches, and the earwigs, these strange little insects that carry a pair of forceps as a casual adornment, are hut very little understood. In the jungles this groan grows to enormous proportions, and they show unusual traits and live according to their own laws that appear entirely different from the supposed laws of their tiny relations in the temperate zones.