^Ijje girt^lj Slaturalt^t. 



Vol.. II. NOVEMBER, 1893. No. 11. 



A DECEPTIVE CATERPIIvLAR. 



BY GKORGK H. CARPENTER, B.SC. 



Ai,iy persons interested in natural history must be more or 

 less familiar with instances of animals obtaining concealment 

 by means of likeness to their surroundings. No class of facts 

 put forward in support of the theor>^ of natural selection has 

 so impressed the public mind, or taken so large a place in 

 popular scientific literature. 



While we admire the perfect protective resemblance exhi- 

 bited by tropical "walking-sticks" and "leaf-butterflies," it is 

 well to remember that in our own country animals are to be 

 found which show similar resemblances in equal perfection. 

 The white winter coat of our Mountain Hare in its snowy 

 haunts, the mottled plumage of the Grouse on the moor, the 

 russet dress of the Woodcock amid the faded Bracken, and 

 the yellow-spotted skin of our famous Kerry slug ( Geomalacus 

 maculosus) on the lichen-covered rocks,^ are instances of such 

 adaptations of animals to their special surroundings. But it is 

 among insects that this question has been more specially 

 studied, and no better examples can be found than the 

 "looping" caterpillars — the larvae of the great group of moths 

 known to entomologists as Geometers. 



If we examine the caterpillar of a butterfly, a hawk-moth, or an 

 owl-moth, we notice, in addition to the three pairs of true legs 

 on the thoracic segments (which correspond to the six legs of 

 the perfect insect), five pairs of "pro-legs" or claspers, 

 situated on the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and tenth (hinder- 



^ Scharfif, " The Slugs of Ireland." Sci. Trans, R.D.S. {2] vol. iv. pt. 

 X., 1891. 



