So fixed was its
instinctive knowledge that its safety depended on its immovability, that
it allowed me to pick it up and replace it among the ants without making
a single effort to escape. This species closely resembles a green
leaf."[70]
Caterpillars also exhibit a considerable amount of detailed resemblance
to the plants on which they live. Grass-feeders are striped
longitudinally, while those on ordinary leaves are always striped
obliquely. Some very beautiful protective resemblances are shown among
the caterpillars figured in Smith and Abbott's _Lepidopterous Insects of
Georgia_, a work published in the early part of the century, before any
theories of protection were started. The plates in this work are most
beautifully executed from drawings made by Mr. Abbott, representing the
insects, in every case, on the plants which they frequented, and no
reference is made in the descriptions to the remarkable protective
details which appear upon the plates. We have, first, the larva of
Sphinx fuciformis feeding on a plant with linear grass-like leaves and
small blue flowers; and we find the insect of the same green as the
leaves, striped longitudinally in accordance with the linear leaves, and
with the head blue corresponding both in size and colour with the
flowers.
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