242 



MR. E. B. POULTON ON THE PROTECTIVE [Mar. 1, 



Table V. — Experiments with Insects which are protectively 



Species and Stage. 



Protectiye resemblance, or habits of concealment, evasion, &c. 



Larva Saturnia carpini 



Larva Mamestra brassicce. 



1. Lepidopterous 



The green larva with its black bands and pink tubercles harmonizes remarkably 

 well with the heather on which it feeds {Andrew 3Iurray : queted by Wallace 

 in the essay often referred to). The larva feeds on other plants also, but the 

 special relation of its appearance to that of heather seems to indicate that 

 this is its ancestral food-plant. Very often, however, the larva possesses 

 golden instead of pink tubercles. 



Commonest variety is olive-brown dorsally and dingy yellow ventrally, with 

 abrupt line of demarcation ; a triangular mark containing two white dots on 

 the back of each segment. Other varieties are brown or dingy green or any 

 intermediate tint. Well concealed among the leaves or in tunnels, in 

 cabbage, broccoli, &c., but freely exposed on many plants, although always 

 harmonizing with the surroundings. 



Larva Tryphtena orbona... 



Larva Tryphcena pronuba . 



Colour dingy umber-brown, with darker and paler markings, 

 plants, and in spring on saUow and hawthorn. 



Feeds on low 



Larva concealed by day, feeding at night on almost all the plants in gardens. 

 Colour varies from pale yellowish green to dark brown, with brown, black, 

 and pale markings. 



Larva Taniocampa gothica 



The whole effect of the larva is green (green ground-colour with one lateral 

 white stripe, and a dorsal and two lateral very narrow pale yellow stripes). 

 Hence harmonizes well with the leaves of the many plants on which it feeds. 

 Disturbed it falls off and has some chance of escaping in the grass or other 

 low -growing plants. 



Larva PMogophora raeticu- 

 losa. 



The whole effect green or brown (for the larva is dimorphic), as the white dorsal 

 and lateral stripes are inconspicuous. Hence well protected on leaves of 

 food-plant, and the brown varieties on dead leaves and earth. Same protective 

 habit of falling offas noticed in T. gothica. Feeds on many low-growing plants. 



Larva Mania typica The larva is coloured with various shades of brown, and is most perfectly pro- 



I tected against bro^^Ti leaves, which, as I have observed, it almost invariably 

 selects, and upon which it sits motionless by day, feeding at night. If there 

 are no brown leaves it retires by day into a very dark corner among the green 

 leaves. It also has the habit of falling off. Feeds on many trees and low- 

 growing plants. 



Larva Hyponomeuta euony- 

 melius. 



Yellowish grey with black spots, not conspicuous in themselves ; but the larvae 

 Uve in colonies, spinning a web, the latter certainly attracting attention. But 

 the larva seem to be safe within it, as in a cocoon. The gregarious nature is 

 doubtless related to the habit of spinning a common web. Feeds on spindle. 



