148 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



butterfly {Vanesm Urtic(e), are, we admit, very simi- 

 lar in colour to the nettles they are found on ; but we 

 cannot, surely, say the same of the dark black ones 

 of the peacock {V. lo), also nettle-leeders, particu- 

 larly as these are not only large, but keep together in 

 numerous companies; which also applies to the cater- 

 pillar of the Camberwell beauty (F. Afitiopa), as 

 well as to the conspicuous caterpillar of the butf-tip 

 {Pygcera bucephala, Ochsenh.), so very destructive 

 in certain years to beeches, oaks, limes, filberts, and 

 other trees*. Some of those just mentioned, indeed, 

 are provided, as we shall afterwards see, with better 

 means of defence than their colours; but if peculiar 

 colours be p;iven by Nature for the purpose of con- 

 cealment, as in the instance of the caterpillars of the 

 small tortoise-shell, why are these studded with thorns 

 in the same way as the conspicuous caterpillars of the 

 peacock and the Camberwell beauty? In this, as in 

 many other instances, the theory evidently proves too 

 much. 



To the examples which we have here given of 

 conspicuous caterpillars, we could easily add some 

 hundreds more ; but thinking these sufficient, we 

 may be permitted, by way of farther illustration, to 

 allude to the instances remarkable in perfect insects. 

 Kirby and Spence mention a different kind of imita- 

 tion of form and colour, which they think *' affords a 

 beautiful instance of the wisdom of Providence in 

 adapting means to their end." One of those two- 

 winged flies {VolucellcB^ Geoffroi), which bear a 

 considerable resemblance to humble-bees, lives dur- 

 ing the larva state in the hives of the latter ; and it 

 is inferred, that as the flies " strikingly resemble 

 those bees in shape, clothing, and colour, the Author 

 of Nature has provided that they may enter these 



* All these caterpillars are figured in this volume : see contentu 

 of the engravings. 



