Brazil, the Amazons and the coast .. . legs stretched out, to look like a stick ; round-bodied kindsdraw their legs close and look like a leaf-bud, or a ball oftheir own silk entangled in the web. From Miss Muffetstime until now, the spiders frighten people away ; but howshall we notice this one that sits on a leaf, all in a heap ;the pink, three-lobedbody appears just likea withered flower thatmight have fallen fromthe tree above; to theflies, no doubt, the de-ception is increased?by the strong, sweetodor of the spider,like jasmine.* Mr. Bates long agodescribed the curiousHeliconian butterfli
Brazil, the Amazons and the coast .. . legs stretched out, to look like a stick ; round-bodied kindsdraw their legs close and look like a leaf-bud, or a ball oftheir own silk entangled in the web. From Miss Muffetstime until now, the spiders frighten people away ; but howshall we notice this one that sits on a leaf, all in a heap ;the pink, three-lobedbody appears just likea withered flower thatmight have fallen fromthe tree above; to theflies, no doubt, the de-ception is increased?by the strong, sweetodor of the spider,like jasmine.* Mr. Bates long agodescribed the curiousHeliconian butterfliesand their mimicsamong other are hundreds ofsuch examples; when-ever a group of insects is distasteful, for any reason, to thebirds, there are always other insects that mimic these, andare thus protected, because the birds are deceived by theirappearance, and will not touch them. One day, for example,I am watching what I suppose to be a S//sus wasp : a largeblack species, with deep purplish-black wings ; it is running. Leaf nsect 2 * I regret that I cannot give the name of this, and other spiders that I speak of;?but my collection (nearly six hundred species) has yet to be studied and described. 222 BRAZIL. about among the grass-tufts, moving its antennse rapidly, asis the fashion with these wasps, and I am curious to see whatit will do. After awhile I discover that my supposed waspis a grasshopper ; a most remarkable one, indeed, for I neversaw such a color before in a grasshopper ; and the fussymovements are utterly unlike the slow sidlings of Orthoptera,or their quick leaps. In the woods we are often attacked by swarms of littleMelipona bees ; they have no sting, but each one grasps holdof a hair, and pulls with all his might. They have a verystrong, unpleasant odor, which probably makes them dis-tasteful to birds ; hence, they have no use for a sting. Themeliponas are little, hairy insects, always daubed over withhoney, or with some excretion, so that they ha
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbrazild, bookyear1879
