The concealment produced by this wonderful imitation
is most complete, and in Sumatra I have often seen one enter a bush and
then disappear like magic. Once I was so fortunate as to see the exact
spot on which the insect settled; but even then I lost sight of it for
some time, and only after a persistent search discovered that it was
close before my eyes.[75] Here we have a kind of imitation, which is
very common in a less developed form, carried to extreme perfection,
with the result that the species is very abundant over a considerable
area of country.
_Protective Resemblance among Marine Animals._
Among marine animals this form of protection is very common. Professor
Moseley tells us that all the inhabitants of the Gulf-weed are most
remarkably coloured, for purposes of protection and concealment, exactly
like the weed itself. "The shrimps and crabs which swarm in the weed are
of exactly the same shade of yellow as the weed, and have white markings
upon their bodies to represent the patches of Membranipora. The small
fish, Antennarius, is in the same way weed-colour with white spots.
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