The best known of these is the Indian _Kallima paralecta_, which, when
it settles, is deceptively like a dead leaf, or rather like a dry or
a half-withered one, on which brown alternates with red, and on which
there are one or two translucent spots, without scales, presumably
representing dewdrops. The upper surface of this butterfly is simply
marked, but gorgeously coloured--blue-black with a reddish yellow,
or bluish white band--and quite constant. The under surface, on the
other hand, although it always resembles a dead leaf, shows very
varied ground colours, being sometimes greyish, sometimes yellowish,
or reddish yellow, or even greenish. Often it shows the lateral
veining of the leaf quite as distinctly as in Fig. 13, but often quite
indistinctly, and the black, mouldy spots (_Sch_) of our figure may
be more strongly marked, or they may be absent. It would seem as if
the mimicry of different kinds of leaves was here aimed at--so to
speak--just as in the case of the varied and numerous species of the
South American genus _Anæa_, which usually live in the woods, and are
all more or less leaf-like, but each species is like a different leaf,
or like a leaf in a different condition, dry, moist, or decomposing.
It is simply astounding to see this diversity of leaf mimicry, and
the extraordinary faithfulness with which the impression of the leaf
is reproduced. But it is by no means always the venation which causes
the resemblance, for this is often inconspicuous; the high degree
of deceptiveness is due to the silvery-clear yellow, dark yellow,
red-brown to dark black-brown ground-colouring, which is never quite
uniform, and over which there usually spreads a whitish ripple,
combined with the remarkable imitation of the sheen of many leaves. The
upper side of this butterfly is almost always conspicuously decorated
with violet, dark blue or red, but always without any relation to the
under surface. Not in all, but in many of the species of this genus,
we find the round, translucent mirrors on the wing already mentioned
in the case of _Kallima_, and in some species quite remarkable means
are made use of to make the resemblance to a leaf thoroughly deceptive.
Thus _Anæa polyxo_, when sitting, looks like a leaf out of the edge
of which a caterpillar has eaten a little piece; in reality there is
nothing missing from the wing, but on the front margin of the anterior
wing a semicircular spot of a bright, soft, yellow colour stands out so
sharply from the rest of the chestnut-brown wing surface, that it has
the effect of a hole in the leaf.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. _Cœnophlebia archidona_, from Bolivia, in its
resting attitude. _mr_, midrib of the apparent leaf. _st_, the apparent
stalk.]
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