28 Mr. A. G. Butler on 



As with the lizards, so it was with frogs. My lizards 

 being all dead, early in the year 18i38, I turned two 

 frogs into the case, and fed them almost daily with cater- 

 pillars, &c., from the garden ; the result of my experi- 

 ments with the larvEe of Abraxas grossulariata and Halia 

 vauaria are noted in tlie "Entomologist's Monthly Ma- 

 gazine " for October last, as follows : — 



When the frogs " first became aware of the introduc- 

 tion of the caterpillars, they seemed greatly excited, 

 sprang forwards, and licked them eagerly into their 

 mouths ; no sooner, however, had they done so, than 

 they seemed to become aware of the mistake that they 

 had made, and sat with gaping mouths, rolling their 

 tongues about, until they had got quit of the nauseous 

 morsels, which seemed perfectly uninjured, and walked 

 off as briskly as ever.'" 



The same thing' may be said of another insect perse- 

 cutor, the spider; the rejection of these two caterpillars 

 by my frogs, induced me to try whether spiders would 

 show a similar aversion to them. I repeatedl}^ put them 

 into the webs both of the geometrical and hunting 

 spiders [Ereiha dUidema and Lycosa, species ?) ; but in the 

 former case, they were cut out, and allowed to drop ; in 

 the latter, after disappearing in the jaws of their captor 

 down his dark silken funnel, they invariably re-appeared 

 either from below, or else taking long strides up the 

 funnel again. 



Thus, in three instances, I have proved the same 

 caterpillars to be distasteful to insect persecutors ; surely 

 such evidence may be looked upon as conclusive of the 

 fact, that some species have an advantage over others, and, 

 therefore, are more likely to survive in the great struggle 

 for existence : it is well known that Abraxas grossnlarinta, 

 Halia vauaria, and AntJirocera fiUpcndnJce are three of the 

 commonest of our British Moths, and here is one reason 

 why they are so common ; with regard to the two former 

 species, it is true that the perfect insect is greedily 

 devoured, where the laiwa is rejected ; but when we 

 remember that the larval state is the most subject to 

 mortality from surrounding causes, such a fact only 

 tends to explain how it is that these species have not 

 become a perfect plague. 



The caterpillars of Abraxas grossidariata wer3 more 

 distasteful to my lizards than were the large stinging 



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