XVII. 



PROTECTIVE COLORING IN CATERPILLARS 



Considering mimicry iu butterflies, we iDointed 

 out that it was not the least among the strange 

 elements of that phenomenon that these extraordi- 

 nary departures from a normal type should be 

 gained purely for protection during the fuial days 

 of a life, the earlier periods of which were subject 

 to far greater dangers than the later. 



When, however, we come to examine the earlier 

 stages themselves, though we shall find, as far as 

 I am aware, no cases of parastatic mimicry, we do 

 find that protective colors and markings, if not 

 striking, are at least very general ; so general, 

 indeed, that it might be questioned whether there 

 exists a single one of the caterpillars of our butter- 

 flies whose markings do not serve in some special 

 way for its protection. 



Lubbock and Weismann have pointed out that 

 caterpillars of Lepidoptera generally are green in 

 their earliest stage. This, however, is not univer- 



