56 Proceedings 
Mr. E. Dukinfield-Jones, F.Z.S., F.E.S., read the following 
paper on: 
Some Methods of Protection and Defence 
in Caterpillars. 
The subject of Protection in Caterpillars is so large a one 
that in a short paper like the present it is not possible to do 
more than barely mention some of the well-known and more 
general methods of protection; and I shall chiefly confine my- 
self to a few specialized cases that came under my own obser- 
vation in Brazil. 
Perhaps the commonest mode of protection in Caterpillars, 
as in so many other insects, is that of colouration to harmonise 
with surrounding objects, thus rendering them less likely to be 
seen by their enemies. A very large proportion of caterpillars 
that feed upon the foliage of plants, especially the smooth- 
skinned ones that are not protected in any other way, many 
species of the Noctuidae, for instance, are coloured partly if 
not wholly green, of a shade that will be of most use to them 
according to their special habits. Species that feed on the leaves 
of trees at night only and retire to the branches or trunk of the 
tree during the daytime are often grey or of some colour that 
resembles the bark, or the lichen growths so common on forest 
trees. An interesting example of this colouration is shown in 
two species of Molippa, large Saturnids, both of which feed 
upon the same tree (Mimosa). But one of them (J/.stmz/lima) 
has the habit of remaining when at rest, as well as when feeding, 
on the twigs of the tree, amongst the yellow flowers, and these 
caterpillars have bright yellow spines and black and yellow bodies, 
harmonising perfectly with their surroundings. The other species 
(MZ. sabina) retires to the limbs of the tree during the daytime, 
or often to the trunk quite near the ground, and these are grey- 
ish white and black, the spines are greyish white, and when a 
group of half a dozen or a dozen of the caterpillars are clustered 
together on the trunk they might easily be mistaken for a patch 
of lichen, I may mention that in this particluar case the cater- 
pillars are further protected by venomous spines, a more detailed 
account of which I shall give later on. 
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