Mimicry 



Equally remarkable are the caterpillars of the pine 

 beauty moth, which need no artifice to render themselves 

 inconspicuous other than their wonderful protective 

 colouring. Their favoured food consists of the dark 

 green, needle-like leaves of the pine-tree, which are often 

 striped longitudinally with yellowish-white lines. The 

 caterpillars are dark green in colour, of such a shade as to 

 exactly match the pine leaves, and on either side of the 

 middle line of their backs they bear a white stripe. 

 Away from their food plant they are very conspicuous 

 creatures. Even from our description they probably do 

 not appear much like pine-needles in colour, but the fact 

 remains that on their food plant they are wellnigh in- 

 distinguishable. 



It is curious to note that lichen-covered trees are very 

 frequently used as resting-places for insects that desire to 

 escape detection on account of their peculiar colour schemes, 

 or shall we say that many such insects are so marked 

 as to escape detection when resting on lichen-covered 

 trees? Instinct, habit, call it what you will, appears to 

 point out the most desirable resting-places for each insect. 

 The common red underwing moth, whose fore-wings are 

 mottled grey, must never be sought on green leaves 

 during its daylight resting hours, but on some old 

 weather-beaten fence, of such a nature that the colours of 

 insect and support harmonise in marvellous manner. Still 

 more remarkable is a little Madagascan beetle which not 

 only resembles the lichen-covered trees on which it lives 

 in colour, but to some degree in form, for its wing-cases 

 are knobbed all over with little warty outgrowths, which 

 still further heighten the illusion. 



Wonderful indeed are the devices employed by Nature 

 in moulding her children ; among the most extraordinary 

 are those insects which resemble bird droppings. There 

 are several small moths which, with white, black-tipped 

 wings, so closely resemble the excrement of birds that 

 detection by insect-eating enemies is almost impossible. 



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