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Show SPIDERS THAT CHANGE HUE Chameleon Lisa Insecta Take Color of . Leaves and Flowers to Catch Prey. i Every traveler that returns from tropical regions has extraordinary stories to tell of the strange mimicry of leaves and flowers by Insects Sometimes the purpose of the Imitation Imita-tion seems to be concealment and sometimes the laying of a snare to catch other Insects A curious instance in-stance of this was noticed on the Gold coast of Africa by a member of a British scientific expedition when he stopped to examine a singular looking look-ing white flower with a blue cenier He found, to his astonishment, that It was not a flower at all, but a spider spi-der a web, and that thw supposed light blue heart of the flower was the spl-' der Itself lying In wait for Its prey The legs of the cunning spider, yel low mottled with brown, were extended ex-tended In such a way ss to resemble the divisions between the petals of the flower The web Itself, very delicately woven Into a rosetts pattern, with white, and three threads that suspended sus-pended It from the bushes were so fine as to be almost Invisible The whole thing had the appearance of being suspended In the air upon a stem concealed beneath When the scientist knocked the spider from Its perch Into a white g.nue net his surprise was Increased upon seeing his captive Instantly turn from blue to white Its former mimicry mimi-cry had been practiced as a snare; now It was playing a similar game for the sake of concealment , Hi.t ibe end ol tt.e perloruiunc was not yet reached When tin- Investigator Investiga-tor shook his captive Its body again changed color, becoming this time ol a dull greenish brow n Mter he captured cap-tured another larger specimen of the ante species of spider, whose flower web resembled an orchid. This spider exhibited the same remarkable power of changing Its color Harper' Weekly. |