But the best proofs are furnished by those of ten-cited cases in which
the insect bears a deceptive resemblance to another object. We now
know many such cases, such as the numerous imitations of green or
withered leaves, which are brought about in the most diverse ways,
sometimes by mere variations in the form of the insect and in its
colour, sometimes by an elaborate marking, like that which occurs in
the Indian leaf-butterflies, _Kallima inachis_. In the single
butterfly-genus Anaea, in the woods of South America, there are about
a hundred species which are all gaily coloured on the upper surface,
and on the reverse side exhibit the most delicate imitation of the
colouring and pattern of a leaf, generally without any indication of
the leaf-ribs, but extremely deceptive nevertheless. Anyone who has
seen only one such butterfly may doubt whether many of the
insignificant details of the marking can really be of advantage to the
insect. Such details are for instance the apparent holes and splits
in the apparently dry or half-rotten leaf, which are usually due to
the fact that the scales are absent on a circular or oval patch so
that the colourless wing-membrane lies bare, and one can look through
the spot as through a window. Whether the bird which is seeking or
pursuing the butterflies takes these holes for dewdrops, or for the
work of a devouring insect, does not affect the question; the
mirror-like spot undoubtedly increases the general deceptiveness, for
the same thing occurs in many leaf-butterflies, though not in all, and
in some cases it is replaced in quite a peculiar manner. In one
species of Anaea (_A. divina_), the resting butterfly looks exactly
like a leaf out of the outer edge of which a large semi-circular piece
has been eaten, possibly by a caterpillar; but if we look more closely
it is obvious that there is no part of the wing absent, and that the
semi-circular piece is of a clear, pale yellow colour, while the rest
of the wing is of a strongly contrasted dark brown.
But the deceptive resemblance may be caused in quite a different
manner. I have often speculated as to what advantage the brilliant
white C could give to the otherwise dusky-coloured "Comma butterfly"
(_Grapta C. album_). Poulton's recent observations[46] have shown that
this represents the imitation of a crack such as is often seen in dry
leaves, and is very conspicuous because the light shines through it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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