Not unlike this is a 'shark' moth found in this country, _Xylina obsoleta_, which, as the name indicates, looks when at rest like a broken bit of half-rotten wood (Fig. 10, p. 77). It 'feigns death,' as we commonly say, that is, it draws the legs and antennæ close to the body, and does not move; indeed, one may lift it up and throw it on the ground without its betraying by a single twitch that it lives. Only after it has been left undisturbed for some time does it show signs of life again, and makes off hastily, to find a better hiding-place. The colouring of this moth is so curiously mingled--brown, whitish, black, and yellow--and traced with acute-angled lines and curves, that one cannot distinguish it at sight from a bit of rotten wood. I experienced that myself once when, passing a hedge, I thought I saw a _Xylina_ sitting on the ground, and picked it up to examine it. I thought it was a bit of wood, and, disappointed, I threw it down again on the grass, but then I felt uncertain, and picked it up once more--to find that it was a moth after all[1]! [1] Rösel says in this connexion: 'The marvellous form of this Papilio preserves it from injuries, for, when he hangs freely on a trunk of a tree, he would be taken ten times sooner for a piece of bark than for a living creature. By day, too, he is so little sensitive, that if he be thrown down from his resting-place he falls to the ground as if lifeless, and remains lying motionless. One may also throw him into the air, or turn him about, and he will rarely give a sign of life. I have impaled many of them on needles, without seeing any sign of sensitiveness on their part. This is the more remarkable that these birds (sic), after they have submitted to all the torment and misery one can inflict on them, without showing any sign of feeling, will, whenever they are left in peace and have no further disturbances to fear, quickly creep off to a dark corner and attempt to conceal themselves from future attacks.'--_Insektenbelustigungen_, Nürnberg, 1746, vol. i. p. 52. This case of _Xylina_ is hardly less remarkable, and its likeness to the mimicked object is scarcely less wonderful than that of the often discussed mimicry of a leaf, with stalk, midrib, and lateral veins, by many of the forest butterflies of South America and India. [Illustration: FIG. 13. _Kallima paralecta_, from India, right under side of the butterfly at rest. _K_, head. _Lt_, maxillary palps. _B_, limbs. _V_, anterior wing. _H_, posterior wing. _St_, 'tail' of the latter, corresponding to the stalk of the leaf. _gl_^1 and _gl_^2, transparent spots. _Aufl_, eye-spots. _Sch_, mould-spots.]