Speaking of these protective resemblances Mr.Jenner Weir says: "After being thirty years an entomologist I was deceived myself, and took out my pruning scissors to cut from a plum tree a spur which I thought I had overlooked.

This turned out to be the larva of a geometer two inches long.

I showed it to several members of my family, and defined a space of four inches in which it was to be seen, but none of them could perceive that it was a caterpillar."[72] One more example of a protected caterpillar must be given.

Mr.A.
Everett, writing from Sarawak, Borneo, says: "I had a caterpillar brought me, which, being mixed by my boy with some other things, I took to be a bit of moss with two exquisite pinky-white seed-capsules; but I soon saw that it moved, and examining it more closely found out its real character: it is covered with hair, with two little pink spots on the upper surface, the general hue being more green.

Its motions are very slow, and when eating the head is withdrawn beneath a fleshy mobile hood, so that the action of feeding does not produce any movement externally.