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Excerpt: ...and, what is more important, edible larvae have a comparatively simple coloration, being always brown or green and smooth. Uneatable larvae, on the other hand, comprise all that are of conspicuous colours and are hairy or spiny. But with butterflies there is no such simplicity of contrast. The eatable butterflies comprise not only brown or white species, but hundreds of Nymphalidae, Papilionidae, Lycaenidae, etc., which are gaily coloured and of an immense variety of patterns. The colours and patterns of the inedible kinds are also greatly varied, while they are often equally gay; and it is quite impossible to suppose that any amount of instinct or inherited habit (if such a thing exists) could enable young insectivorous birds to distinguish all the species of one kind from all those of the other. There is also some evidence to show that animals do learn by experience what to eat and what to avoid. Mr. Poulton was assured by Rev. G.J. Bursch that very young chickens peck at insects which they afterwards avoid. Lizards, too, often seized larvae which they were unable to eat and ultimately rejected. Although the Heliconidae present, on the whole, many varieties of coloration and pattern, yet, in proportion to the number of distinct species in each district, the types of coloration are few and very well marked, and thus it becomes easier for a bird or other animal to learn that all belonging to such types are uneatable. This must be a decided advantage to the family in question, because, not only do fewer individuals of each species need to be sacrificed in order that their enemies may learn the lesson of their inedibility, but they are more easily recognised at a distance, and thus escape even pursuit. There is thus a kind of mimicry between closely allied species as well as between species of distinct genera, all tending to the same beneficial end. This may be seen in the four or five distinct species of the genus Heliconius which all have the same...
| ISBN-13 | 9781770456822 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 1770456821 |
| Weight | 0.99 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.68 In |
| List Price | $26.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 304 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2010-03-01 |
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