ix WARNING COLORATION AND MIMICRY 237 



pillars — Abraxas grossulariata, Diloba cseruleocephala, An- 

 throcera filipendula, and Cucullia verbasci. He also found that 

 they would not touch any hairy or spiny larvae, and he was 

 satisfied that it was not the hairs or the spines, but the un- 

 pleasant taste that caused them to be rejected, because in one 

 case a young smooth larva of a hairy species, and in another 

 case the pupa of a spiny larva, were equally rejected. On 

 the other hand, all green or brown caterpillars as well as 

 those that resemble twigs were greedily devoured. 1 



Mr. A. G. Butler also made experiments with some green 

 lizards (Lacerta viridis), which greedily ate all kinds of food, 

 including flies of many kinds, spiders, bees, butterflies, and 

 green caterpillars ; but they would not touch the caterpillar of 

 the gooseberry-moth (Abraxas grossulariata), or the imago of 

 the burnet-moth (Anthrocera filipendula). The same thing 

 happened with frogs. When the gooseberry caterpillars 

 were first given to them, "they sprang forward and licked 

 them eagerly into their mouths ; no sooner, however, had 

 they done so, than they seemed to become aware of the 

 mistake that they had made, and sat with gaping mouths, 

 rolling their tongues about, until they had got quit of the 

 nauseous morsels, which seemed perfectly uninjured, and 

 walked off as briskly as ever." Spiders seemed equally to 

 dislike them. This and another conspicuous caterpillar 

 (Halia wavaria) were rejected by two species — the geometrical 

 garden spider (Epeira diadema) and a hunting spider. 2 



Some further experiments with lizards were made by 

 Professor Weismann, quite confirming the previous observa- 

 tions ; and in 1886 Mr. E. B. Poulton of Oxford undertook 

 a considerable series of experiments, with many other species of 

 larvae and fresh kinds of lizards and frogs. Mr. Poulton then 

 reviewed the whole subject, incorporating all recorded facts, as 

 well as some additional observations made by Mr. Jenner Weir 

 in 1886. More than a hundred species of larvae or of perfect 

 insects of various orders have now been made the subject of 

 experiment, and the results completely confirm my original 

 suggestion. In almost every case the protectively coloured 

 larvae have been greedily eaten by all kinds of insectivorous 



1 Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 1869, p. 21. 

 2 Ibid., p. 27. 



