688 Marvels of the Universe 
suddenly puzzled by the tints and patterns of some of the caterpillars. It was, of course, impossible 
to invoke the aid of Sexual Selection to explain the colours of these immature stages of insects. He 
asked the help of Alfred Russel Wallace, who, after thinking over the subject, suggested to his 
friend the theory of Warning Colours, predicting that these brightly-coloured caterpillars would be 
distasteful to most insect-eating animals, while the well-hidden ones would be extremely palatable. 
Experiments which were made almost at once verified Wallace’s prediction, and since that time 
immense numbers of further experiments have been made on animals of many kinds, especially 
insects, and it has been found that species which are conspicuous in nature, both during rest and 
in movement, invariably possess some special kind of defence, such as an unpleasant taste or 
smell, irritating hairs, the sting, or the poison 
fang. It does not follow, however, that bright 
colours necessarily mean conspicuousness. In 
our own country we have small caterpillars 
which feed on brightly-coloured petals, and 
spiders which lie in wait for their prey in the 
corolla of buttercups and other flowers ; and 
both of these are concealed by tints which 
match their brilliant background. It is also 
true that, at a considerable distance, patterns 
made up of strongly-contrasted tints tend to 
become invisible: indeed, Mr. Abbott H. 
Thayer is so impressed with this fact, that 
he believes Warning Colours do not exist, 
but that all the colours of nature tend to 
concealment. Probably every species in nature 
has some foes to fear, and it is a special 
danger of Warning Patterns that they are so 
easily seen by those enemies which can put up 
with the special defence. Hence, the tendency 
of sharply-contrasted colours to become in- 
visible is doubtless an advantage, especially 
as they become the very reverse of invisible 
long before the ordinary enemy is within 
striking distance. 
Photo by] [A. £. Tonge. 
On the accompanying plate the artist 
THE CATERPILLAR OF THE SHARK MOTH. t : zi 
has represented a great variety of Warn- 
Its striking colouring—greenish-white, bright yellow and 
idence Mito dite Mice Exus, IG fo Ghadino acided, ine Iauioms, selected iom many paris oi 
anal paving nelncern te ade itself) feeds) with impunity) ony the the) animale <anedomeancantromesmanyalands® 
The caterpillar in the centre at the top of 
the plate is that of the Cinnabar moth. Here we have an example of a pattern that is 
by no means wholly conspicuous; for the orange-and-black-ringed caterpillar feeds on the 
orange-flowered ragwort. But the caterpillars are gregarious, and many may often be 
seen a long way off, crowded together on a single plant nearly eaten bare by their united 
exertions. The meaning and the value of the Warning Colours of this species have been 
shown in a striking experiment by Professor Lloyd Morgan. He fed some young pheasants on 
meal “ doctored’ with various unpleasant substances—quinine, dilute nitric acid, and very dilute 
strychnine—placing the food on glass slips beneath which orange-and-black stripes had been pasted. 
He soon found that the birds would not touch even undoctored meal when it was put upon the 
patterned glass, and that they regarded with the greatest suspicion and would barely touch the 
