Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/484

454 the hood of a Cobra." He subsequently found that he "had been frightened by a big Grasshopper, which, by puffing out its wings, assumed a resemblance to the shape of the head of a Hooded Snake; while its noise was a good imitation of the dull jerky hiss of some species of Snakes."

But it must be remembered, as Mr. Kirby has truly remarked, that though these brightly-coloured caterpillars are probably rejected by insectivorous animals as inedible, they are not protected "against the attacks of parasites, but rather the reverse." He once bred some Tachinidæ (parasitic Diptera) from the larvæ of the Spurge Hawk-Moth. Mr. Pickard Cambridge states that "upwards of a thousand parasitic grubs of the genus Microgaster have been taken from a single caterpillar." The many enemies of caterpillars have been described by an Indian observer, who writes:—"Upon the whole I think birds are the least important of a caterpillar's enemies. At first, when it is so minute that a bird would not be at the trouble to pick it up, it is exposed to the cruelty and rapacity of hordes of Ants of many tribes, which scour every tree and shrub, sipping the nectar in the flowers, licking the glands at the bases of the leaves, milking the aphides, and looting and ravaging wherever they go. Besides Ants, every tree swarms with Spiders—not web-Spiders, but wolf-Spiders—which run about in quest of their prey. Then come Wasps and Ichneumons, and these, from a caterpillar point of view, are of two sorts—those which will carry him to their own quarters for the food of their children, and those which will quarter their children on him, or, I should say, in him. Finally, the few that have survived all these dangers have to run the gauntlet of the birds."

Poulton refers to the two Hawk-Moths (Sesia fuciformis and S. bombyliformis), "which in some degree suggest the appearance of Humble-Bees," as instances of "mimicry of Hymenoptera by Lepidoptera." But when he offered a living specimen to a Lizard (Lacerta muralis), the animal was "not imposed upon in the least, but devoured the insect without hesitation or caution. Although Humble-Bees are eaten by Lizards, they are always