Animal coloration : an account of the principal facts and theories relating to the colours and markings of animals / by Frank E. Beddard.

  • Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers), 1858-1925.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Animal coloration : an account of the principal facts and theories relating to the colours and markings of animals / by Frank E. Beddard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    others stems or tlie bare surface of the earth ; it is simply a new and better adaptation which lias not yet thoroughly esta- blished itself. The green caterpillars are to be looked upon as individuals of a class that will ultimately disappear owing to their retention of a less perfect form of adaptation. One difficulty in the way of this view of the origin of the marking of the Hawk moth caterpillars is that the markings are not always adaptive. With regard to the persistent reten- tion of the longitudinal striping in the Macroglossime (the Humming-bird Hawk moth, Bee Hawk moth, etc.), Dr. Weismann remarks that “ it is not difficult to perceive how a whole group could have made shift with this low grade of marking [longitudinal striping] up to the present time. Colour and marking are not the only means of offence and defence possessed by these insects ; and it is just such simply- marked larva? as those of the Macroglossinae which have the protective habit of feeding only at night, and of concealing themselves by day. Moreover, under certain conditions of life the longitudinal stripes may be a better means of protection, even for a Sphinx larva, than any other marking ; and all those species in which this pattern is retained at the present time live either among grasses or on Coniferre.” This last statement is not absolutely true, since Macroglossa fuciformis feeds upon honeysuckle, which, though it may occasionally trail among grasses at the bottom of a hedgerow, also climbs to a considerable height. It has longitudinal stripes until an “ advanced age.” So far as the habit of night- ieeding is concerned, many of these larvae might have remained in the first stage; for it would not matter what their colour was. But it may be always said that we have here an indication of a former state of affairs; such an argument can no more be refuted than those of the believers in Special Creation.