THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 43 
spiders. Stinging ants, like bees and wasps, are closely 
resembled by a host of other insects ; indeed, whenever I found 
any insect provided with any special means of defence, I 
looked for imitative forms, and was never disappointed in 
finding them.” 
Just as there are amongst insects and other animals many 
that possess what are termed “ warning colours,” so also there 
are spiders. Animals possessing warning colours are either 
dangerous or objectionable to enemies of their class, and hence 
are rarely attacked. Bright and striking colours, such as red, 
may be described as a “‘ danger signal,”’—an intimation that 
the creature possessing it had better be left alone. Many 
spiders are brightly coloured, and these include the boldest 
and fiercest of their class. Two examples out of many will 
suffice. One is the powerful Wrioden rubricapitatum and the 
other Latrodectus hasselti. Of these the former has the 
first half of its body brilliant scarlet, and the latter 
its abdominal portion a bright satiny black with 
a broad central band of scarlet, with, sometimes, scarlet 
lateral stripes. Such colours, one would think, would 
naturally attract attention, and in attracting, have . 
a tendency to lead to extinction. Yet these spiders are 
very common. Their bodies are never found in the crops of 
insectivorous birds nor, so far as I can find, in the nests of 
wasps. Small lizards are fond of eating spiders, and devour a 
great many, yet they do not appear to attack DLatrodectus. Of' 
this I have some proof, for a small lizard that I kept for some 
time ate all the spiders I gave it except the red-striped species, 
and that it would not touch on any account. Animals 
possessing warning colours do not always wholly escape. 
Speaking on tris side of the subject Professor Poulton says: 
‘It is probably unnecessary for the young insect-eating 
animal actually to make a trial of every species of nauseous 
insect in its locality in order to be equipped with an efficient 
stock of experiences with which to conduct its later life. 
Such an education would be somewhat dearly bought ; it would 
be unpleasant to the insect-eater and destructive to the insect. 
Since, however, the same colours are employed again and again 
by unpalatable or dangerous insects of very different groups, 
and since the patterns are also frequently repeated, it is 
obvious that a comparatively few unpleasant experiences 
would be sufficient to create a prejudice against any insect with 
a colour or pattern at all resembling the nauseous forms which 
had already produced so deep impression upon the memory.” 
Experiments have proved that “ the colours which produce the 
greatest contrast, and therefore the greatest effect upon the 
eye of an insect-eating vertebrate, are black and white, and 
next to this black (or some very dark colour) and yellow, 
