T/ie Colours of Animals, 99 



6. Thus, in the Eyed Hawk-moth, which feeds on 

 the willow and sallow ; the Poplar Hawk-moth 

 which feeds on the poplar ; and the Lime Hawk- 

 moth, which frequents the lime, the caterpillars all 

 remain green ; while in those which frequent low 

 plants, such as the Convolvulus Hawk-moth, which 

 frequents the convolvulus ; the Oleander Hawk- 

 moth, which feeds in this country on the periwinkle ; 

 and other species, most of the caterpillars turn 

 brown. There are, indeed, some caterpillars which 

 are brown, and still do not go down to the ground 

 as, for instance, those of the Geometridce gene- 

 rally. These caterpillars, however, as already 

 mentioned, place themselves in peculiar attitudes, 

 which, combined with their brown colour, make 

 them look almost exactly like bits of stick or dead 

 twigs. 



7. The last of the five points to which I called your 

 attention was the eye-spots. In some cases, spots 

 may serve for concealment, by resembling the 

 marks on dead leaves. In one species, which feeds 

 on the hippophae, or sea buckthorn, a grey-green 

 plant, the caterpillar also is a similar grey-green, 

 and has, when full grown, a single red spot on each 

 side which, as Weissmann suggests, at first sight 

 much resembles in colour and size one of the berries 

 of the hippophae. This might, at first, be sup- 

 posed to constitute a danger, and therefore to be 

 a disadvantage ; but the seeds, though present, 

 are not ripe, and consequently are not touched by 



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