COLORATION AFFECTED BY THE ENVIRONMENT. 49 



which he had bred from caterpillars found upon nettles ; these 

 showed, according to Mr. Newman,* " a wonderful similarity to 

 Urticm," though the colour was " nearer to that of Polychloros." 



Plenty of other instances of a similar kind have been re- 

 corded, and by entomologists of experience ; I do not under- 

 stand why Professor Semper should throw a doubt upon the 

 validity of their statements, especially as he sees no intrinsic 

 improbability in the influence of food upon coloration. 



Professor Eimer f has quoted the researches of Koch in 

 this department of entomology. Koch was able in the case of 

 Chelonia hebe (one of the Tiger moths) to alter the colour of 

 the underwings from a fiery to a dull red, and bring out more 

 strongly either the black markings or the white ground 

 by feeding the caterpillars upon different plants. Similar 

 experiments were made upon the common Tiger moth {Ch. 

 caja), and Nemeophila plantaginis, also a British insect. 



Mr. Goss found that the larva of one of our fritillaries {Melitcea 

 artemis), when fed upon honeysuckle, which is not the usual 

 food plant of the caterpillar, became very dark-coloured imagos.t 

 One of the " Thorn moths " (Enno??ios angularia) shows 

 variations in colour according as to whether the larva has been 

 fed upon oak, hawthorn, lime, or lilac. § 



In the Zoologist, on p. 7903, Mr. Gregson has tabulated the 



results of a careful series of experiments dealing with the effects 



produced by diffei-ent food plants upon a number of different 



species of moths. 



Pygcura hucepJiala was finer and darker when fed upon sycamore. 

 Xylophasia pnlyodon was dark, sometimes black, when fed upon heather. 

 Hadena adusta was darker when fed upon heather. 

 Acronycta menyanthidis fed on sallow produces roc. Salicis. 



* Entomologist, vol. vi., p. 88. 



"f " Organic Evolution," Eng. Trans, by J. T. Cunningham. 



t Entomologist, vol. vii., p. 203. § Ibid., vol. ix., p. 263. 



