SOME EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING LIZARDS WITH 

 PROTECTIVELY COLORED INSECTS. 1 



ANNIE H. PRITCHETT. 



During the past year, from October to May inclusive, I have 

 been experimenting with insects that possess protective, mimetic 

 and warning colors or that have some disagreeable character- 

 istics which in a measure are supposed to prevent their being 

 devoured by insect-eating animals. For this purpose several 

 species of lizards found in the vicinity of Austin, Texas, have 

 been kept in separate, convenient cages and fed with the various 

 insects. Some interesting observations on the habits of the liz- 

 ards were made incidentally and these are also noted in the fol- 

 lowing paper. 



The species of lizards used for the experiments are the follow- 

 ing : GcrrJionotns inf emails Baird, C/irotaphytus collaris Say, 

 Scelopom s floridamt s Baird, Holbrookia tcxana Troschel, Cncuii- 

 doplwnts scxlincatns Linn., Phrynosoma cornutitui Harl., and an 

 undetermined species of Euincces. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SC'ELOPORUS FLORIDANUS. 

 LEPIDOPTERA. 



Anosia plexippus Linn. This species is conspicuously colored 

 in light brown with black and white markings. It is also said 

 to have a disagreeable taste and is the supposed model of the 

 mimic Basilarchia disippns. Specimens were introduced Oc- 

 tober 3 i , November 6, April 2 (two), April 4, April 6. Each 

 time the butterfly was caught by the wing, or by the wings if 

 folded, held for a few moments and then eaten slowly. It was 

 not torn to pieces but held by part of the wings and swallowed 

 gradually, the lizard often pausing a moment to rest. 



Papilio (Laertias) philcnor Linn. Formerly this was included 

 in the genus Papilio but has been separated because of character- 

 istic differences, important among which is the supposition that 

 it is an especially protected form because its larva feeds on Aris- 



1 Contribution from the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Texas, No. $2. 



271 



