Some animals suffer the indignity of names that recall the traits of other creatures. There are tiger beetles, elephant shrews, zebra fish and moth butterflies. At times the compliment is dubiously returned; thus, there are crab spiders as well as spider crabs, as two distant arthropod families endure adjectives forced upon each other by singular, superficial resemblances. But such compound names are perhaps mere nomenclatural quibbles compared to the chagrin of crude monikers such as slippery dick and crotch cricket.
Spider crabs in the genus Camposcia are masters of camouflage that don a longcoat of shells, sponges and seaweed. The closely related sea toad, however, prefers to travel light – largely naked grey and dirty hooks of hair appear adequate to disguise this crab amid the coarse rubble of Sekudu. The spindly legs are similarly adorned, save a pair of smooth, dark chelae which the animal endeavours to hide under its pear-shaped carapace.
Deer mice bear no resemblance to their cervid namesakes, save perhaps in the tawny shade of their fur. But the lesser chevrotain is indeed a mousy thing that forages with such discretion it eludes the eyes of strollers just a few feet away. The din of three dozen passing scouts was insufficient to drive away this puppy-sized individual as it nibbled on tender leaves and young shoots by the boardwalk one noisy afternoon. After a while, the mousedeer tucked its legs in to chew cud by a stump before the day broke and the forest gave way to a dig of wilder beasts.
Most beetles already enjoy the protection of stiff elytra, but the chrysomelids known as tortoise beetles have gone the whole hog with wingcases that envelope their flanks and pronota that shield tiny heads. The button-like insects were abundant by the trail off Chestnut Avenue, where they clung to broad leaves only to abandon their chelonian pose and take swift flight the moment our fingers brushed the thin blades.
Monkeys hop. So do monkey hoppers. Both are browsers, but it's not too clear why simians came to mind with eumastacids. Admitedly, the gangly orthopterans have an ape-like penchant for awkward hindleg postures, but they display none of the rude charisma or deviant intelligence of macaques or even the raucous charm of banded langurs. Dozens of nymphs infested the soft vegetation by the trail, and most entertained the pretence that they were invisible until their perches shuddered with the clumsy shifts of bodies that sought answers to primal urges in a walk of wild, unruly thoughts.
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