ABERRATION AND PROTECTIVE 
RESEMBLANCE 
I T is during comparatively recent times only that the study 
of aberration has attained a foremost position among 
the various branches of zoology, especially in entomology. 
During the lapse of ages, insects of all kinds have acquired, 
through natural selection, both in form and colouring ranging 
through various degrees of development of perfection, an 
extraordinary resemblance to their environment. The insects, 
in a vast number of examples, so closely mimic their immediate 
surroundings that they not only readily deceive the ordinary 
observer, but also frequently escape the detection of the acute 
vision of birds and other enemies. 
There appears no doubt that in the remote past, many 
millions of years ago, insects were represented by forms of 
much more simple character, especially as regards the 
ornamentation of colouring and markings. It appears certain 
that the primeval colours consisted of white, brown and 
black ; while even at the present time by far the greater 
number of species of butterflies and moths still retain these 
sombre hues. Brown, being the least conspicuous colour, 
predominates in the females, and is assumed obviously for 
protective purposes to aid the continued existence of the 
species. As time progressed, evolution gradually crept 
forward and white in certain kinds became replaced by 
yellow, followed later by orange and red. The primitive 
black types in some cases became modified into blue, and 
subsequently a variety of hues appeared. 
There is but little doubt that in the earliest times certain 
insects by some influence, accidental or otherwise, resembled 
objects common to their environment, and it is reasonable 
to assume that the protection thus rendered them by the 
resemblance enabled the individuals to escape destruction by 
their enemies ; while those that varied in other respects and 
remained conspicuous would naturally be more readily 
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