CAMOUFLAGED INSECTS 167 



In a great many cases insects are not camouflaged as we understand 

 the word. Many are bright and gaudy and attract rather than de- 

 ceive the eye. In such cases, these bright spots, bands, spines and 

 ground colors serve as warning signals to the enemies of the insects. 

 They are protective measures of another variety employed by Nature 

 for a double purpose. They are to protect the bearer against its 

 enemies and at the same time the would-be sampler of insects in 

 general. 



Bright and gaudy colors are often a sign of poisonous qualities in 

 an insect, or one whose blood lymph or other body fluids possess a 

 disagreeable taste. In the light of the above statement it is inter- 

 esting that many harmless and edible insects mimic in pattern those 

 species who are really ill tasting or poisonous. Thus the great 

 monarch butterfly is closely mimicked in color by another species. 



The monarch (Anosia plexippus) is one of the most successful of 

 insects. It is abundant and widely distributed, due in all probability 

 to qualities that make it distasteful to birds and other enemies, in all 

 stages of its life. Thus it has become a dominant species in the insect 

 world. 



To mimic such a species would be at once advantageous to other 

 insects and, strangely enough, the viceroy butterfly (Basilarchia 

 archippus) gains immunity from attack in this way, even though it 

 is in all probability an edible species. 



In South America I found a species of Heliconidae, a medium- 

 sized glossy black butterfly bearing rose-colored bands across the 

 wings. This species, except in the contour of its wings, was closely 

 mimicked by a species of Papilionidae, inhabiting the same general 

 locality. The former are supposed to be inedible or distasteful. 

 Endless cases might be cited, like the above, especially among 

 tropical insects, who are camouflaged, so to speak, to resemble some- 



