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pril,"08] =§§§_- ENTOMOLOGICAL NeEWs. 147 
- Color and Environment. 
: By Howarp Austen Snyper, Philadelphia, Pa. 
_ While collecting insects in the Bermuda Islands in the year 
1905, I perceived that the common wasps I saw flying were 
of a lighter shade than those of the United States, and ex- 
pected to find in my net a species different from our own, 
’ but on examination I saw that they were identical with our 
_ Polistes pallipes. The difference in shade I attribute to the 
- fac that as Bermuda has coral roads and white calcimined 
foots, the average shade of the country has had the effect of 
_ producing a lighter shade in its insects. As every one knows, 
the more contrasted int color or shade an insect or bird is with 
_ félation to surrounding objects, Or the background on which 
es it rest the more liable it is to be discovered and devoured or 
led by its enemies. Locally we see that effect in the locust, 
Trimerotropis maritima, and the tiger beetle, Cicindela dor- 
alis, of our own coasts, which from their habit of frequent- 
_ img the light sandy tracts, have had their darker ancestors 
_ @liminated by this fact in the economy of nature, and only the 
__ light ones remain and are inconspicuous and less liable to de- 
struction. Their color serves to keep them on the sand, 
for let them wander inland where there is vegetation and a 
_ darker soil, and they are soon discovered and destroyed. With 
__ bees and swift flying creatures this rule cannot so well apply, 
‘ never long in one place, and can elude their ene- 
The tiger beetle and locust alight frequently and are 
often resting in sight of ‘enemies. 
_____ I mean to indicate by the above that in any country, especi- 
_ ailly an isolated one, the insects will average darker or lighter 
according to the shade of the land and vegetation. Let a 
_ dark insect inhabit a country where the roads and the roofs 
are white, it will be rendered conspicuous and thus exposed 
to danger oftener than it would be in a country where the 
surface is darker. The diagram below will portray in a gen- 
eral way the appearance of Bermuda as compared with that 
_ of the United States—not exactly, of course. For the proper 
