Striped Caterpillars 
Lord Avebury, who is a typical Wallaceian, 
points out the connection that exists between 
longitudinal stripes on caterpillars and the habit 
of feeding either on grass or low-growing plants 
among grass. The inference, of course, is that 
birds mistake these caterpillars for leaves, or, at 
any rate, fail to observe them when feeding, not 
only because they are green in colour, but 
because their longitudinal stripes look like the 
parallel veins on the blades of grass. But the 
butterflies of the family Satyvzdz, as Beddard 
points out, a//7 possess striped larvee, and these 
feed chiefly by night, when neither their colouring 
nor marking is visible, while during the day 
many of them lie up under stones; other cater- 
pillars of this family feed inside the stems of 
plants. ‘‘ Now,” writes Beddard (Anzmal Coloura- 
tion, p. 101), “in these cases the colour obviously 
does not matter: if, therefore, the longitudinal 
striping is kept up by constant selection on 
account of its utility, and has no other significa- 
tion, we might expect that in these two species 
(Hipparchia semele and Ginzs), and in others with 
similar habits, the cessation of natural selection 
would have permitted the high standard required 
in the other cases to be lowered—perhaps, even, 
as has been suggested in the case of cave animals, 
the colours being useless to their possessors, 
might have disappeared altogether—but they 
have not.” 
205 
