150 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



inference of the theorists that they are thus coloured 

 to conceal them from their enemies. Were this, in- 

 deed, the true cause of these colours, the butterflies 

 ought to remain stationary on the flowers, without 

 sporting about in the sunshine, as if on purpose to 

 show the birds and the dragon -flies that they are 

 living insects, and not inanimate flowers. In the 

 instance of many moths which fly by twilight, this is 

 no less obvious ; for, instead of being of dark dusky 

 colours, which would have effectiially concealed them 

 from the bats and the fern-owls, they are frequently 

 white, or at least of such light colours as show well 

 in the dusk. There is but small need of enumerating 

 examples of this, and it will be sufficient to name the 

 white-ghost moth (Hepialiis Humuli), which may 

 often be seen, where hops or burdocks grow, hovering 

 on the wing for hours together; the satin-moth 

 (Leucoma Salicis, Stephens), which floats about the 

 air like an animated flake of snow-white down, or 

 flits conspicuously from tree to tree among the higher 

 branchea of a row of poplars ; and the magpie-moth 

 {Abraxas grossiilariata), usually abundant in every 

 garden, though liberally sprinkled with black spots, 

 has enough of white to distinguish it in its heavy, 

 lumbering flight, even when the last rays of the twi- 

 light are disappearing. That these are not strained 

 examples of insects so coloured as to be conspicuous 

 to their enemies, will farther be obvious from a com- 

 mon contrivance of schoolboys to catch bats. They 

 chalk the seed-heads of burdocks in such a manner 

 as to resemble the white moths alluded to ; and 

 throwing these up where a bat is observed flying, he 

 fails not to dart upon the supposed moth, and the 

 bur adhering to his wings, brings him down to pay 

 the penalty of his mistake*. 



If we leave colouring out of consideration, and 

 * J. R. 



