sept.,i903.i Packard: Color-Preference in Insects. 133 



had been made, the most careful being those of Lubbock who showed 

 that the honey bee prefers blue, and ants violet. The following obser- 

 vations are published with the view of calling attention to this inter- 

 esting matter, which in the case of flies and mosquitoes is a subject of 

 no little importance. 



Preference of Locusts {AcrydiidcB) for White. — My attention was 

 first called to the preference of locusts for white by a letter to St. 

 Nicholas in 1900 from Boothbay Harbor, Maine, written by 

 Dorothy C. Baldwin to the following effect : "I would like to inquire 

 why grasshoppers are attracted more by white than any other color ? 

 I have noticed that when I wear a white dress I find several grass- 

 hoppers on it, but when I wear any other colored dress they do not 

 jump upon me at all." Upon inquiring as to others' experience, my 

 daughter tells me that she always observed that white or light-colored 

 clothes attracted grasshoppers, and when walking scarcely more than 

 a hundred feet she has noticed five or six grasshoppers on her white 

 dress, but none when the dress was dark in color. Another lady has 

 also noticed that a white dress will attract "grasshoppers," or more 

 properly, locusts. 



Color-prefereiue ill Moths. — The late S. Lowell Elliot once told me 

 of a case observed by him where white moths {Spi/osoma, Hyphantria 

 and Acronycta ob/inita) would alight upon the white trimmings of a 

 red and white barn, while on the darker, red portions, sat Catocalae, 

 and other dark or reddish moths. They were thus protected from 

 observation. 



An English writer states that Bryophila perla will frequently alight 

 upon stone walls or those composed of grayish colored bricks, but in 

 the case of a red brick wall, it will only alight upon the mortar be- 

 tween them, thus trying to harmonize its color with its surroundings. 



M. Rocquigny-Adanson while walking with his insect-net saw 

 Adela degecrclla alight on the green gauze. In walking a distance of 

 two hundred meters it did this twice (Bulletin Soc. Ent. France, 

 1903, No. 12, p. 207). His note was called out by that of M. 

 Poujade, but he cited it as an instance of familiarity rather than of 

 color-preference. 



Color-preference in Butterflies. — I once observed at Amherst, Mass., 

 that white butterflies (Fieris) would alight upon the flowers of a white 

 aster, while Colias philodice would by preference alight upon the yel- 

 low flowers of the golden rod, but these observations need repetition 

 before they can be accepted as a normal or regular occurrence. 



