THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. XVIIL] FEBRUAEY, 1885. [No. 261. 



PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES IN INSECTS. 

 By Roland Trjmen, F.R.S., &c. 



Prof. Candeze has well observed that the main endeavour 

 of every living being in nature is twofold, viz., on the one hand, 

 to get enough to eat; and, on the other, to escape being eaten. 

 To ensure this double object the most strenuous efforts are made ; 

 and it is obvious that, in such a competition for the means of 

 existence, the slightest superiority or advantage must tell in 

 favour of its possessor. Upon a very little difference in strength, 

 swiftness, tenacity, weapons, acuteness of perception, or intelli- 

 gence, the issue of life or death will depend, where there is 

 enough for one but not for two, or when it is a question of hair- 

 breadth escape from a devouring foe. 



It is with regard to these all-important matters of obtaining 

 a sufficiency of food, and escaping being fed upon, that the 

 advantages of disguise and concealment become manifest. If the 

 desert lion finds the advantage which his tawny hair gives him in 

 stealing unobserved upon his prey, none the less does the desert 

 antelope owe his safety to the isabelline colour of his coat. 

 Nothing more strikingly illustrates the uses of concealment than 

 the fact that in the wide unsheltered spaces where there is no 

 cover of any description, all forms of animal life partake of the 

 prevalent colour of the surface, — isabelline on the desert sands, 

 pure white on the arctic snows. 



Mr. A. R. Wallace, who has devoted great attention to this 

 subject, and published some excellent papers dealing with it, 



ENTOM. — FEB., 1885. E 



