250 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



bird will mistake a small moth or caterpillar, its food, for excreta of 

 its own kind. With regard to (inojihns ohsciiraria, I am well aware of 

 the habit of this moth in the New Forest, where the earth is dark and 

 the moth dark also. If the dark coloration is "protective," why is it 

 that the moth hides itself in a rabbit burrow ? In that position it 

 certainly could not be weeded out by birds. With regard to the 

 Boarmids, I have found B. robnraria, B. comoitarici and />. repandata, 

 very "skittish," B. (/eiiiiiiaria and B. ciuctaria not so, with the excep- 

 tion of some worn c? s of the latter that have been emerged some time. 

 1 cannot see how this nervousness " supports the view that the perfec- 

 tion of colour is due to stringent weeding out." B. roboraria is quite 

 easy to see, and I have never had any difficulty in finding as many B. 

 cinctaria and B. f/onmaria as I want. It is movement that is fatal, 

 and if any weeding out takes place, it would be the nervous ones that 

 would be taken, irrespective of colour. With regard to his query, page 

 128, as to whether I am " sure that everything in nature has a use," I 

 would refer him to my remarks on page 180 in the present paper. I 

 am strongly of opinion that there are many things in nature that have 

 no use to their possessor. Of what use are the markings on leaves and 

 flowers ? I am aware that the latter are supposed to guide insects to 

 the nectar and incidentally to bring about fertilization, but then this 

 goes on quite as successfully where the flowers have no marks, or 

 whether the flowers are white or coloured. Of what use is the bloom 

 on grapes, the bloom and markings on a horse-chestnut, or the red 

 colour in a radish? With regard to the green of L. carpinata [luha- 

 lata), to which I referred in my original note, and to which Mr. Curtis 

 refers, page 128, I certainly believe this to be " an extraneous chemical 

 condition not necessary to the survival of the insect." With regard to 

 Mr. Curtis's remark on it, " not sufficiently harmful to be worth 

 eliminating," I wonder who would decide this in nature, and bow the 

 elimination would be brought about. My idea is that it is an outward 

 sign of an internal healthy condition. With regard to Mr. Curtis's 

 remark " that copulation has taken place before the green has faded 

 out," this may be so, but it reminds me that I have found Liiperina 

 testacea freshly emerged after dark and in cop, before the wings of the 

 5 are dry, and the eggs have been laid before morning. I have also 

 found Pachetra leucophaca, Triphaena pronitha, and other moths freshly 

 emerged and in cop. after dark, and visiting them again half-an-hour 

 after have found the ? s hard at work ovipositing. In these cases the 

 colour and markings of the wings have no value to the species, seeing 

 that the important function of reproduction has been accomplished. 

 With regard to L. carpinata [lobnlata) not always resting on birch, 

 that is no doubt a fact, but then if it rested on a fence it would be like 

 a " mudsplash," a " mortar splash," or a " broken blister." If it rested 

 on a brown tree-trunk it would be like a green or grey lichen, accord- 

 ing to how long it had been out of the pupa. If, however, it were a 

 brown Noctuid moth and rested on a brown tree-trunk, it would be 

 " beautifully protected " (until the tits or tree-creeper came). If, how- 

 ever, it happened to rest on some grey lichen, it would "look like a 

 piece of dislodged bark," and so on. A marvellous game of " heads 

 you win, tails I lose." No matter where the moth rests it is 

 " protective resemblance." 



{To he concluded.) 



