Darwinism (1889): An exposition of the theory of natural selection, with some of its applicationsWallace, Alfred Russel
Science
Darwinism (1889): An exposition of the theory of natural selection, with some of its applications
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Evolution; Natural selection
that the paler wings, which imitate leaves most decayed, are usually
covered with small black dots, often gathered into circular groups, and
so exactly resembling the minute fungi on decaying leaves that it is
hard at first to believe that the insects themselves are not attacked by
some such fungus. The concealment produced by this wonderful imitation
is most complete, and in Sumatra I have often seen one enter a bush and
then disappear like magic. Once I was so fortunate as to see the exact
spot on which the insect settled; but even then I lost sight of it for
some time, and only after a persistent search discovered that it was
close before my eyes.[75] Here we have a kind of imitation, which is
very common in a less developed form, carried to extreme perfection,
with the result that the species is very abundant over a considerable
area of country.
_Protective Resemblance among Marine Animals._
Among marine animals this form of protection is very common. Professor
Moseley tells us that all the inhabitants of the Gulf-weed are most
remarkably coloured, for purposes of protection and concealment, exactly
like the weed itself. "The shrimps and crabs which swarm in the weed are
of exactly the same shade of yellow as the weed, and have white markings
upon their bodies to represent the patches of Membranipora. The small
fish, Antennarius, is in the same way weed-colour with white spots. Even
a Planarian worm, which lives in the weed, is similarly yellow-coloured,
and also a mollusc, Scyllaea pelagica." The same writer tells us that "a
number of little crabs found clinging to the floats of the blue-shelled
mollusc, Ianthina, were all coloured of a corresponding blue for
concealment."[76]
Professor E.S. Morse of Salem, Mass., found that most of the New
England marine mollusca were protectively coloured; instancing among
others a little red chiton on rocks clothed with red calcareous algae,
and Crepidula plana, living within the apertures of the shells of larger
species of Gasteropods and of a pure white colour corresponding to its
habitat, while allied species living on seaweed or on the outside of
dark shells were dark brown.[77] A still more interesting case has been
recorded by Mr. George Brady. He says: "Amongst the Nullipore which
matted together the laminaria roots in the Firth of Clyde were living
numerous small starfishes (Ophiocoma bellis) which, except when their
writhing movements betrayed them, were quite undistinguishable from the
calcareous branches of the alga; their rigid angularly twisted rays had
all the appearance of the coralline, and exactly assimilated to its dark
purple colour, so that though I held in my hand a root in which were
half a dozen of the starfishes, I was really unable to detect them until
revealed by their movements."[78]
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