SOME OBSERVATIONS ON PROTECTIVE COLORATION 

 OF LEPIDOPTERA, 



P(ead February 5th, 1885, by Richard South 



All forms of animal life dependent upon plants are themselves 

 the natural prey of other animals. It is, therefore, a matter of vital 

 importance to the majority of animals that they should possess 

 colour and markings, which in character, assimilate or harmonise with 

 their surroundings. The plant-feeder requires protective colour, so 

 that it may conceal itself from its carnivorous enemies, and the 

 flesh-eating animal, so that it may be able to steal upon its herbi- 

 vorous prey unobserved. 



In those localities, as for instance in the tropics, where vegetation 

 is most varied, a corresponding variety in animal life will be found 

 to exist ; but on the other hand, in the sandy deserts where there 

 are neither trees nor shrubs we find the coloration of reptile, bird, or 

 beast, to be in unison with that of the sandy soil. Again, in the 

 Arctic regions, pure white, with one or two exceptions, is the prevail- 

 ing tint of fur and feather. 



Some writers, although they do not entirely deny its being to a 

 certain extent protective, contend that protection is not the primary 

 object of colour. Such writers draw attention to the heat absorbing 

 qualities of colour, and argue that, in the Arctic regions for example, 

 white fur is of more utility to animals than would be a darker 

 coloured fur, because white is a bad absorber of heat, and in con- 

 sequence an animal possessing a white fur would be better able to 

 exist in its ice-bound habitat, as the heat of its body would be 

 economised and not readily parted with. But, on the other hand, it 

 is well known that the musk sheep (Ovibos moschatus) a gregarious 

 arctic animal, is of a dark brown colour. Now brown as a good 

 absorber of heat, is only second to black. It is unnecessary to say 

 more on this head than to observe that looking at the habits of 

 musk sheep, colour in harmony with their surroundings would be of 

 less service to them than a conspicuous colour. Their dark colour 



