678 ZOOLOGY. 



Danais archippus, a common large butterfly, is not eaten 

 by birds on account of its pungent odor, which is disagree- 

 able to them. Another butterfly, Limenitis disippus, a 

 smaller but similarly colored butterfly, which is inodorous, 

 is supposed to be mistaken by the birds for the Danais, and 

 thus escapes destruction. 



Belt says that in Central America stinging ants are not 

 only closely copied in form and movements by spiders, but 

 by species of Hemiptera and Coleoptera ; as stinging ants 

 are not usually eaten by birds, this disguise is thought to 

 protect the various forms which imitate them. 



Many highly-colored caterpillars, which live exposed on 

 the leaves of plants, are not eaten by birds, owing to their 

 bad taste. This and other bright-colored insects may be said 



Fig. 545. Wasp mimicked by a bug. After Belt, 



to hang out danger-signals to warn off hungry birds. Mr. 

 Belt, in his " Naturalist in Nicaragua," suggests that the 

 skunk is an example of this kind. " Its white tail, laid 

 back on its black body, makes it very conspicuous in the 

 dusk when it roams about, so that it is not likely to be 

 pounced upon by any of the Carnivora mistaking it for other 

 night-roaming animals." He also cites the case of a very 

 poisonous, beautifully banded coral snake (Elaps), which is 

 " marked as conspicuously as any noxious caterpillar with 

 bright bands of black, yellow, and red." This author also 

 found that while the frogs in Nicaragua are dull or green- 

 colored, feeding at night, and all preyed upon by snakes 

 and birds, one little species of frog, dressed in a bright liv- 



