34 



THE COLOURS OF ANIMATE 



upon the plant. Thus the caterpillar of the Straw 

 Belle (Aspilates gilvaria), feeding upon such plants as 

 yarrow and plantain, coils up the anterior part of its 

 body into a flat spiral, with the head in the centre. 

 Hence the attitude and the whitish colour of the larva 

 produce a very considerable resemblance to a small 

 bleached and empty snail-shell, which 

 would be of no interest to any insect- 

 eater. If the colour of the caterpillar 

 were darker it might be mistaken for 

 a living snail, and it is doubtful how far 

 such a resemblance would be to its ad- 

 vantage, in the case of birds. 



Another larva, that of the Large 

 Emerald Moth (Geometra papilionaria), 

 feeding upon catkin -bearing trees, birch 

 and nut, resembles the catkins rather 

 than the twigs (see fig. 9). It is short 

 and stout, and the manner in which the 

 body-rings succeed each other forcibly 

 suggests the overlapping scales of a cat- 

 kin. Some of the larva? are green and 

 some brown, like catkins of different colours. 



FIG. 9. - The 

 larva of Large 

 Emerald Moth 

 (Geometra 

 papilionaria); 

 a green va- 

 riety ; last 

 stage; natural 



Protective Resemblance to bark and lichen in 

 Lepidoptera 



Certain caterpillars belonging to other groups are 

 concealed by their resemblance to the bark of tolerably 



