Examples of Warning Colouration 
so as to be inconspicuous; but numerous ex- 
ceptions occur which are brightly coloured, and of 
these individuals many have been experimentally 
proved to be objectionable as food to most insect- 
eating animals, being either protected by an 
unpleasant taste, or covered with hairs or 
spines. 
Familiar cases are those of the abundant and con- 
spicuous black and yellow mottled caterpillars of 
the European Buff-tip Moth (Pygera bucephala), 
which are much disliked by birds; and the 
gaily - coloured Vapourer Moth caterpillar 
(Orgyta antigua), with its conspicuous tufts of 
hair. Readers will remember that a few years 
back these caterpillars were a perfect plague in 
London, in spite of the abundance of sparrows, 
which feed freely on smooth green and brown 
caterpillars, 
Oft-cited examples of warning colouration, are 
the three great groups of mainly tropical butter- 
flies—the Heliconide of America, the Acreide 
of Africa, and the Danazme found all over the 
world. In all of these the sexes are alike. 
They are, every one, strikingly coloured, dis- 
playing patterns of black and red, chestnut, 
yellow, or white. In most butterflies the lower 
surface of the wings is of a quiet hue, in order 
to render the organism inconspicuous when at 
rest, but in these warningly coloured groups the 
under surface of the wings is as gaudy as the 
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