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Animal colouration has been a topic of interest and research in biology
for well over a century. Colours may be cryptic (functioning as an adaptation
allowing the prevention of
prey detection; aposematic (functioning as a warning of unprofitability) or
may be the result of sexual selection. Colouration may also be
function in mimicry of other organisms. The subject may be investigated in
terms of both the chemical and physical basis of the colours (proximate
cause) and the evolution of colouration (ultimate cause).
Camouflage is generally viewed as the result of natural selection, and
involves an organism's colour blending in with its
biotic (e.g. moss) or abiotic (e.g. sand) surroundings. Camouflage is often
accompanied by behavioural adaptations that make the most of it, such as
landing on areas of similar colour, and aligning the body correctly. It may
involve costs as well as benefits, such as the cost of finding a suitable
resting spot. Colour may change during the seasons, during an organism's life
cycle, or even over very brief intervals, such as with the chameleon.
Polymorphism may also occur, allowing individuals of the same species to have
different camouflage, and making
prey detection more difficult for predators. Organisms living in the same
environment may come to have similar colouration through
convergent evolution. Colours are an aspect of only one of the senses, and
although the
visual system is most important for humans, some animals cannot even see (such
as those living in caves, underground, in the deep sea,
or those active at night) and their colour may be of little or no adaptive
value.
These organisms rely primarily on other senses, such as olfaction and hearing,
and even electroreception.

Chapman's Zebras in Botswana |
Cryptic colouration has
evolved in many species that have been subjected to the pressures of predation
and also in predatory species. Such colours help predators (aggressive
resemblance or anticryptic colouring) and prey (protective resemblance or
procryptic colouring). Protective resemblance is far commoner among animals
than aggressive resemblance, in correspondence with the fact that predaceous
forms are as a rule much larger and much less numerous than their prey. In
the
case of
insectivorous vertebratates and their prey such differences exist in an
exaggerated form. Cryptic colouring, whether used for defence or attack, may
be either general or special. In general resemblance the animal, in
consequence of its colouring, produces the same effect as its environment,
but
the conditions do not require any special adaptation of shape and outline.
General resemblance is especially common among the animals inhabiting some
uniformly coloured expanse of the earth's surface, such as an ocean or a
desert. In
the former, animals of all shapes are frequently protected by their
transparent blue colour; on the latter, equally diverse forms are defended
by
their sandy appearance. The effect of a uniform appearance may be produced
by
a combination of tints in startling contrast. Thus the black and white
stripes
of the zebra
blend together at a little distance, and their proportion is such as exactly
to match the pale tint which arid ground possesses when seen by moonlight (F
Galton, South Africa, London, 1889). |
Special resemblance is far commoner than general, and is the form which
is
usually met with on the diversified surface of the earth, on the shores, and
in shallow water, as well as on the floating masses of algae on the
surface of the ocean, such as the
Sargasso Sea. In these environments the cryptic colouring of animals is
usually aided by special modifications of shape, and by the instinct
which leads them to assume particular attitudes. Complete stillness and the
assumption of a certain attitude play an essential part in general
resemblance
on land; but in special resemblance the attitude is often highly
specialized,
and perhaps more important than any other element in the complex method by
which concealment is effected. In special resemblance the combination of
colouring, shape and attitude is such as to produce a more or less exact
resemblance to some one of the objects in the environment, such as a leaf or
twig, a
patch of lichen,
or flake of bark.
In all cases the resemblance is to some object which is of no interest to
the
enemy or prey respectively. The animal is not hidden from view by becoming
indistinguishable from its background, as in the cases of general
resemblance,
but it is mistaken for some well-known object.
In the past these effects were explained as a result of the direct
influence of the environment upon the individual (GLL
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon), or by the
inherited effects of effort and the use and disuse of parts (JEP
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck), but
natural selection, which can accumulate any and every variation which
tends towards survival, has been the accepted explanation now for almost a
century. A few of the chief types of methods by which concealment is
effected
may be briefly described. The colours of large numbers of vertebrate animals
are darkest on the back, and become gradually lighter on the sides, passing
into white on the belly.
Abbott Handerson Thayer (The Auk, vol. xiii., 1896) has suggested
that this gradation obliterates the appearance of solidity, which is due to
shadow.
The colour-harmony, which is also essential to concealment, is produced
because the back is of the same tint as the environment (e.g. earth) bathed
in
the cold blue-white of the sky, while the belly, being cold blue-white
bathed
in shadow and yellow earth reflections, produces the same effect. Thayer has
made models (in the natural history museums at London, Oxford and Cambridge)
which support his interpretation in a very convincing manner. This method of
neutralizing shadow for the purpose of concealment by increased lightness of
tint was first suggested by EB Poulton in the case of a larva (Trans.
Ent.
Soc. Loud., 1887, p. 294) and a pupa (Trans. Ent. Soc. Loud.,
1888,
pp. 596, 597), but he did not appreciate the great importance of the
principle. In an analogous method an animal in front of a background of dark
shadow may have part of its body obliterated by the existence of a dark
tint,
the remainder resembling, e.g., a part of a leaf (W Müller, Zool.
Jahr.
JW Spengel, Jena, 1886).
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This method of rendering invisible any part which would interfere with
the
resemblance is well known in mimicry. A
common aid to concealment is the adoption by different individuals of two or
more different appearances, each of which resembles some special object to
which an enemy is indifferent. Thus the leaf-like butterflies (Kallima)
present various types of colour and pattern on the under side of the wings,
each of which closely resembles some well-known appearance presented by a
dead
leaf; and the common British yellow under-wing moth (Tryphaena
pronuba) is similarly polymorphic on the upper side of its upper wings,
which
are exposed as it suddenly drops among dead leaves. Caterpillars and
pupae
are also commonly dimorphic, green and brown. Such differences as these
extend the area which an enemy is compelled to search in order to make a
living. In many cases the cryptic colouring changes appropriately during
the course of an individual life, either seasonally, as in the ptarmigan
or Alpine hare, or according as the individual enters a new environment
in
the course of its growth (such as larva, pupa, imago, etc.). |
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A camouflaged Orange Oak Leaf butterfly (centre) |
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In insects with
more than one brood in the year, seasonal dimorphism is often seen, and the
differences are sometimes appropriate to the altered condition of the
environment as the seasons change. The causes of change in these and Arctic
animals are insufficiently worked out: in both sets there are observations
or
experiments which indicate changes from within the organism, merely
following
the seasons and not caused by them, and other observations or experiments
which prove that certain species are susceptible to the changing external
influences. In certain species concealment is effected by the use of
adventitious objects, which are employed as a covering. Examples of this
allocryptic defence are found in the tubes of the
caddis fly larvae (Trichoptera),
or the objects made use of by crabs of the genera Hyas,
Stenorhynchus, etc. Such animals are concealed in any environment. If
sedentary, like the former example, they are covered up with local
materials;
if wandering, like the latter, they have the instinct to reclothe.
Allocryptic
methods may also be used for aggressive purposes, as the
ant-lion larva, almost buried in sand, or the large frog
Ceratophrys, which covers its back with earth when waiting for its prey.
Another form of allocryptic defence is found in the use of the colour of the
food in the digestive organs showing through the transparent body, and in
certain cases the adventitious colour may be dissolved in the blood or
secreted in superficial cells of the body: thus certain insects make use of
the chlorophyll of their food (Poulton, Proc. Roy. Soc. liv. 417).
The
most perfect cryptic powers are possessed by those animals in which the
individuals can change their colours into any tint which would be
appropriate
to a normal environment. This power is widely prevalent in fish, and also
occurs in Amphibia and Reptilia (the chameleon
affording a well-known example). Analogous powers exist in certain Crustacea
and Cephalopoda. All these rapid changes of colour are due to changes in
shape
or position of superficial pigment cells controlled by the nervous system.
That the latter is itself stimulated by light through the medium of the eye
and optic nerve has been proved in many cases. Animals with a short
life-history passed in a single environment, which, however, may be very
different in the case of different individuals, may have a different form of
variable cryptic colouring, namely, the power of adapting their colour once
for all (many pupae), or once or twice (many larvae). In these cases the
effect appears to be produced through the nervous system, although the
stimulus of light probably acts on the skin and not through the eyes.
Particoloured surfaces do not produce particoloured pupae, probably because
the antagonistic stimuli neutralize each other in the central nervous
system,
which then disposes the superficial colours so that a neutral or
intermediate
effect is produced over the whole surface (Poulton, Trans. Ent. Soc.
Lond.,
1892, p. 293).
Cryptic colouring may incidentally produce superficial
resemblances between
animals; thus desert forms concealed in the same way may gain a likeness to
each other, and in the same way special resemblances, e.g. to lichen, bark,
grasses, pine-needles, etc., may sometimes lead to a tolerably close
similarity between the animals which are thus concealed. Such, likeness may
be
called syncryptic or common protective (or aggressive) resemblance, and it
is
to be distinguished from mimicry and common warning colours, in which the
likeness is not incidental, but an end in itself. Syncryptic resemblances
have
much in common with those incidentally caused by functional adaptation, such
as the mole-like forms produced in the burrowing Insectivora, Rodentia and
Marsupialia. Such likeness may be called syntechnic resemblance,
incidentally
produced by dynamic similarity, just as syncryptic resemblance is produced
by
static similarity.
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Warning colouration is the exact opposite of camouflage,
its function being
to render the animal conspicuous to its enemies, so that it can be easily
seen, well remembered, and avoided in future.
Warning colours are associated with some quality or weapon which renders the
possessor unpleasant or dangerous, such as unpalatability, an evil odour,
a sting, the poison-fang, etc. The object being to warn an enemy off, these
colours are also called aposematic.
Recognition markings, on the other hand, are episematic, assisting the
individuals of the same species to keep together when their safety depends
upon numbers, or easily to follow each other to a place of safety, the young
and inexperienced benefiting by the example of the older. Episematic
characters are far less common than aposematic, and these than cryptic;
although, as regards the latter comparison, the opposite impression is
generally produced from the very fact that concealment is so successfully
attained.
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A venomous coral snake. |
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Warning or aposematic colours, together with the
qualities they indicate,
depend, as a rule, for their very existence upon the abundance of palatable
food supplied by the animals with cryptic colouring (the models).
Unpalatability, or even the possession of a sting, is not sufficient defence
unless there is enough food of another kind to be obtained at the same time
and place (Poulton, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1887, p. 191). Hence insects
with
warning colours are not seen in temperate countries except at the time when
insect life as a whole is most abundant; and in warmer countries, with
well-marked wet and dry seasons, it will probably be found that warning
colours are proportionately less developed in the latter.
In many species of African butterflies belonging to the
genus Junonia,
including the subgenus Precis, the wet-season broods are
distinguished
by the more or less conspicuous under sides of the wings, those of the dry
season being highly cryptic. Warning colours are, like cryptic, assisted by
special adaptations of the body-form, and especially by movements which
assist
to render the colour as conspicuous as possible. On this account animals
with
warning colours generally move or fly slowly, and it is the rule in
butterflies that the warning patterns are similar on both upper and under
sides of the wings.
Many animals, when attacked or disturbed, sham death (as
it is commonly but
wrongly described), falling motionless to the ground. In the case of
well-concealed animals this instinct gives them a second chance of escape in
the earth or among the leaves, etc., when they have been once detected;
animals with warning colours are, on the other hand, enabled to assume a
position in which their characters are displayed to the full (J.
Portschinsky,
Lepidopterorum Rossiae Biologia, St Petersburg, 1890, plate i. figs. 16,
17).
In both cases a definite attitude is assumed, which is not that of death.
Other warning characters exist in addition to colouring:
thus sound is made
use of by the disturbed
rattlesnake and the Indian Ec/jis, etc. Large birds, when attacked, often
adopt a threatening attitude, accompanied by a terrifying sound. The cobra
warns an intruder chiefly by attitude and the dilation of the flattened
neck,
the effect being heightened in some species by the spectacles. In such cases
we often see the combination of cryptic and sematic methods, the animal
being
concealed until disturbed, when it instantly assumes an aposematic attitude.
The advantage to the animal itself is clear: a poisonous snake gains nothing
by killing an animal it cannot eat; while the poison does not cause
immediate
death, and the enemy would have time to injure or destroy the snake.
In the case of small unpalatable animals with warning
colours the enemies
would only first become aware of the unpleasant quality by tasting and often
destroying their prey; but kin
of the organism killed may gain by the experience thus conveyed, even though
the individual might suffer. An
insect-eating animal does not come into the world with knowledge: it has
to learn
by experience, and warning colours enable this education as to what to avoid
to be gained by a small instead of a large waste of life. Furthermore, great
tenacity of life is usually possessed by animals with warning colours. The
tissues of aposematic insects generally possess great elasticity and power
of
resistance, so that large numbers of individuals can recover after very
severe
treatment.
The brilliant warning colours of many caterpillars
attracted the attention
of
Charles Darwin when he was thinking over his hypothesis of
sexual selection, and he wrote to
AR Wallace on the subject (C Darwin, Life and Letters, London,
1887, uI. 93). Wallace, in reply, suggested their interpretation as warning
colours, a suggestion since verified by experiment (Proc. Ent. Soc.
Lond.,
1867, p. lxxx; Trans. Ent. Soc. Loud., 1869, pp. 21 and 27). Although
animals with warning colours are probably but little attacked by the
ordinary
enemies of their class, they have
special enemies which keep the numbers down to the average. Thus the cuckoo
appears to be an insectivorous bird which will freely devour conspicuously
coloured unpalatable larvae. The effect of the warning colours of
caterpillars
is often intensified by gregarious habits. Another aposematic use of colours
and structures is to divert attention from the vital parts, and thus give
the
animal attacked an extra chance of escape. The large, conspicuous, easily
torn
wings of butterflies and moths act in this way, as is found by the abundance
of individuals which may be captured with notches bitten symmetrically out
of
both wings when they were in contact. The eye-spots and tails so common on
the
hinder part of the hind wing, and the conspicuous apex so frequently seen on
the fore wing, probably have this meaning. Their position corresponds to the
parts which are most often found to be notched. In some cases (e.g. many
Lycaenidae) the tail and eye-spot combine to suggest the appearance of a
head
with antennae at the posterior end of the butterfly, the deception being
aided
by movements of the hind wings (see
automimicry). The flat-topped tussocks of hair on many caterpillars look
like conspicuous fleshy projections of the body, and they are held
prominently
when the larva is attacked. If seized, the tussock comes out, and the enemy
is
greatly inconvenienced by the fine branched hairs. The tails of lizards,
which easily break off, are to be similarly explained, the attention of the
pursuer being probably still further diverted by the extremely active
movements of the amputated member. Certain crabs similarly
throw off their claws when attacked, and the claws continue to snap most
actively. The tail of the dormouse,
which easily comes off, and the extremely bushy tail of the squirrel,
are probably of use in the same manner. Animals with warning colours often
tend to resemble each other superficially.
This fact was first pointed out by
Henry W. Bates in his paper on the theory of mimicry (Trans. Linn.
Soc.
vol. xxiii., 1862, p. 495). He showed that the conspicuous, presumably
unpalatable, tropical American butterflies, belonging to very different
groups, which are mimicked by others, also tend to resemble each other, the
likeness being often remarkably exact. These resemblances were not explained
by his theory of mimicry, and he could only suppose that they had been
produced by the direct influence of a common environment. The problem was
solved in 1879 by
Fritz Müller (see Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1879, p. xx.), who
suggested that life is saved by this resemblance between warning colours,
inasmuch as the education of young inexperienced enemies is facilitated.
Each
species which falls into a group with common warning (synaposematic) colours
contributes to save the lives of the other members. It is sufficiently
obvious
that the amount of learning and remembering, and consequently of injury and
loss of life involved in the process, are reduced when many species in one
place possess the same aposematic colouring, instead of each exhibiting a
different danger-signal. These resemblances are often described as
Mullerian mimicry, as distinguished from true or
Batesian mimicry described in the next section. Similar synaposematic
resemblances between the specially protected groups of butterflies were
afterwards shown to exist in tropical Asia, the East Indian Islands and
Polynesia by F Moore (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1883, p. 201), and in Africa
by
EB Poulton (Report Brit. Assoc., 1897, p. 688). R Meldola (Ann.
and
Mag. Nat. Hist. X., 1882, p. 417) first pointed out and explained in the
same manner the remarkable general uniformity of colour and pattern which
runs
through so many species of each of the distasteful groups of butterflies;
while, still later, Poulton (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1887, p. 191)
similarly
extended the interpretation to the synaposematic resemblances between
animals
of all kinds in the same country. Thus, for example, longitudinal or
circular
bands of the same strongly contrasted colours are found in species of many
groups with distant affinities.
Certain animals, especially the
Crustacea, make use of the special defence and warning colours of other
animals. Thus the English
hermit-crab, Pagurus bernhardus, commonly carries the
sea-anemone, Sagartia parasitica, on its shell; while another
English species, Pagurus pridauxii, inhabits a shell which is
invariably clothed by the flattened anemone, Adamsia palliata.
The white patch near the tail which is frequently seen in
the gregarious ungulates,
and is often rendered conspicuous by adjacent black markings, probably
assists
the individuals in keeping together; and appearances with probably the same
interpretation are found in many birds. The white upturned tail of the
rabbit
is probably of use in enabling the individuals to follow each other readily.
The difference between a typical aposematic character appealing to enemies,
and episematic intended for other individuals of the same species, is well
seen when we compare such examples as (1) the huge banner-like white tail,
conspicuously contrasted with the black or black and white body, by which
the
slow-moving skunk warns enemies of its power of emitting an intolerably
offensive odour; (2) the small upturned white tail of the rabbit, only seen
when it is likely to be of use and when the owner is moving, and, if
pursued,
very rapidly moving, towards safety.
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The fact that animals with distant affinities may more or less closely
resemble each other was observed long before the existing explanation was
possible. Its recognition is implied in a number of insect names with the
termination -formis, usually given to species of various orders which more
or
less closely resemble the stinging
hymenoptera. The usefulness of the resemblance was suggested in Kirby and
Spences Introduction to Entomology, London, 1817, ii. 223. HW Bates
(Trans.
Linn. Soc. vol. XXiII., 1862, p. 495) first proposed an explanation of
mimicry based on the theory of natural selection. He supposed that every
step
in the formation and gradual improvement of the likeness occurred in
consequence of its usefulness in the struggle for life. The subject is of
additional interest, inasmuch as it was one of the first attempts to apply
the
theory of natural selection to a large class of phenomena up to that time
well
known but unexplained. Numerous examples of mimicry among tropical American
butterflies were discussed by Bates in his paper; and in 1866 Wallace
extended
the hypothesis to the butterflies of the tropical East (Trans. Linn,
Soc.
vol. xxv., 1866, p. 19); Roland Trimen (Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxvi.,
1870, p. 497) to those of Africa in 1870. |
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Some
hawk-cuckoos resemble
sparrow-hawks. |
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The term mimicry is used in various
senses. It is often extended, as indeed it was by Bates, to include all the
superficial resemblances between animals and any part of their environment.
Wallace, however, separated the cryptic resemblances already described, and
the majority of naturalists have followed this convenient arrangement. In
cryptic resemblance an animal resembles some object of no interest to its
enemy (or prey), and in so doing is concealed; in mimicry an animal
resembles
some other animal which is specially disliked by its enemy, or some object
which is specially attractive to its prey, and in so doing becomes
conspicuous. Some naturalists have considered mimicry to include all
superficial likenesses between animals, but such a classification would
group
together resemblances which have widely different uses.
- The resemblance of a
mollusc to the coral on
which it lives, or an external parasite to the hair or skin of its host,
would be procryptic;
- that between moths which resemble lichen, syncryptic;
- between distasteful insects, synaposematic;
- between the Insectivor mole and the Rodent mole-rat, syntechnic;
- the essential element in mimicry is that it is a false warning (pseud-
aposematic)
or false recognition (pseudepisematic) character.
Some have considered that mimicry indicates resemblance
to a moving object;
but apart from the non-mimetic likenesses between animals classified above,
there are ordinary cryptic resemblances to drifting leaves, swaying bits of
twig, etc., while truly mimetic resemblances are often specially adapted for
the attitude of rest. Many use the term mimicry to include synaposematic as
well as pseudo-sematic resemblances, calling the former Müllerian, the
latter
Batesian, mimicry. The objection to this grouping is that it takes little
account of the deceptive element which is essential in mimicry. In
synaposematic colouring the warning is genuine, in pseudaposematic it is a
sham. The term mimicry has led to much misunderstanding from the fact that
in
ordinary speech it implies deliberate imitation. The production of mimicry
in
an individual animal has no more to do with
consciousness or taking thought than any of the other processes of growth.
Protective mimicry is here defined as an advantageous and superficial
resemblance of one animal to another, which latter is specially defended so
as
to be disliked or feared by the majority of enemies of the groups to which
both belong. Resemblance which appeals to the sense of sight, sometimes to
that of hearing, and rarely to smell, but does not extend to deep-seated
characters except when the superficial likeness is affected by them.
Mutatis mutandis, this definition will apply to aggressive (pseudepisematic)
resemblance. The conditions under which mimicry occurs have been stated by
Wallace:
- that the imitative species occur in the same area and occupy the same
station as the imitated;
- that the imitators are always the more defenceless;
- that the imitators are always less numerous in individuals;
- that the imitators differ from the bulk of their allies;
- that the imitation, however minute, is external and visible only,
never
extending to internal characters or to such as do not affect the external
appearance.
It is obvious that conditions 2 and 3 do not hold in the
case of Müllerian
mimicry. Mimicry has been explained, independently of natural selection, by
the supposition that it is the common expression of the direct action of
common causes, such as climate, food, etc.; also by the supposition of
independent lines of evolution leading to the same result without any
selective action in consequence of advantage in the struggle; also by the
operation of sexual selection.
It is proposed, in conclusion, to give an account of the
broad aspects of
mimicry, and attempt a brief discussion of the theories of origin of each
class of facts (see Poulton, Linn. Soc. Journ. Zool., 1898, p. 558).
It
will be found that in many cases the argument here made use of applies
equally
to the origin of cryptic and sematic colours. The relationship between these
classes has been explained: mimicry is, as Wallace has stated (Darwinism,
London, 1889), merely an exceptional form of protective resemblance. Now,
protective (cryptic) resemblance cannot be explained on any of the lines
suggested above, except natural selection; even sexual selection fails,
because cryptic resemblance is especially common in the immature stages of
insect life. But it would be unreasonable to explain mimetic resemblance by
one set of principles and cryptic by another and totally different set.
Again,
it may be plausible to explain the mimicry of one butterfly for another on
one
of the suggested lines, but the resemblance of a fly or moth to a wasp is by
no means so easy, and here selection would be generally conceded; yet the
appeal to antagonistic principles to explain such closely related cases
would
only be justified by much direct evidence. Furthermore, the mimetic
resemblances between butterflies are not haphazard, but the models almost
invariably belong only to certain sub-families, the
Danainae and
Acraeinae in all the warmer parts of the world, and, in tropical America,
the
Ithomiinae and
Heliconinae as well. These groups have the characteristics of aposematic
species, and no theory but natural selection explains their invariable
occurrence as models wherever they exist. It is impossible to suggest,
except
by natural selection, any explanation of the fact that mimetic resemblances
are confined to changes which produce or strengthen a superficial likeness.
Very deep-seated changes are generally involved, inasmuch as the appropriate
instincts as to attitude, etc., are as important as colour and marking. The
same conclusion is reached when we analyse the nature of mimetic resemblance
and realize how complex it really is, being made up of colours, both
pigmentary
and structural, pattern, form, attitude and movement. A plausible
interpretation of colour may be wildly improbable when applied to some other
element, and there is no explanation except natural selection which can
explain all these elements. The appeal to the direct action of local
conditions in common often breaks down upon the slightest investigation, the
difference in habits between mimic and model in the same locality causing
the
most complete divergence in their conditions of life. Thus many insects
produced from burrowing larvae mimic those whose larvae live in the open.
Mimetic resemblance is far commoner in the female than
in the male, a
fact readily explicable by selection, as suggested by Wallace, for the
female
is compelled to fly more slowly and to expose itself while laying eggs, and
hence a resemblance to the slow-flying freely exposed models is especially
advantageous. The facts that mimetic species occur in the same locality, fly
at the same time of the year as their models, and are day-flying species
even
though they may belong to nocturnal groups, are also more or less difficult
to
explain except on the theory of natural selection, and so also is the fact
that mimetic resemblance is produced in the most varied manner. A spider
resembles its model, an
ant, by a modification of its body-form into a superficial resemblance,
and by holding one pair of legs to represent antennae; certain bugs
(Hemiptera)
and beetles
have also gained a shape unusual in their respective groups, a shape which
superficially resembles an ant; a Locustid (Myrmecophana) has the shape of
an ant painted, as it were, on its body, all other parts resembling the
background and invisible; a Membracid (Homoptera) is entirely unlike an ant,
but is concealed by an ant-like shield. When we further realize that in this
and other examples of mimicry the likeness is almost always detailed and
remarkable, however it is attained, while the methods differ absolutely, we
recognize that natural selection is the only possible explanation hitherto
suggested. In the cases of
aggressive mimicry an animal resembles some object which is attractive to
its prey. Examples are found in the flower-like
species of mantis,
which attract the insects on which they feed. Such cases are generally
described as possessing alluring colours, and are regarded as examples of
aggressive (anticryptic) resemblance, but their logical position is here.
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Darwin suggested the explanation of these appearances in his theory of
sexual selection (The
Descent of Man, London, 1874). The rivalry of the males for the
possession of the females he believed to be decided by the preference of the
latter for those individuals with especially bright colours, highly
developed
plumes, beautiful song, etc. Wallace did not accept the theory, but believed
that natural selection, either directly or indirectly, accounts for all the
facts. Probably the majority of naturalists follow Darwin in this respect.
The subject is most difficult, and the interpretation of a great proportion of
the examples in a high degree uncertain, so that a very brief account is here
expedient. That selection of some kind has been operative is indicated by
the
diversity of the elements into which the effects can be analysed. The most
complete set of observations on epigamic display was made by
George W and Elizabeth G Peckham upon spiders of the family Attidae (Nat.
Hist. Soc. of Wisconsin, vol. i., 1889). These observations afforded the
authors conclusive evidence that the females pay close attention to the
love-dances of the males, and also that they have not only the power, but
the
will, to exercise a choice among the suitors for their favour. Epigamic
characters are often concealed except during courtship; they are found
almost
exclusively in species which are diurnal or semi-diurnal in their habits,
and are excluded from those parts of the body
which move too rapidly to be seen. They are very commonly directly
associated
with the nervous system; and in certain fish, and probably in other animals,
an analogous heightening of effect accompanies nervous excitement other than
sexual, such as that due to fighting or feeding. Although there is epigamic
display in species with sexes alike, it is usually most marked in those with
secondary sexual characters specially developed in the male. These are an
exception to the rule in heredity, in that their appearance is normally
restricted to a single sex, although in many of the higher animals they have
been proved to be latent in the other, and may appear after the essential
organs of sex have been removed or become functionless. This is also the
case in the Aculeate Hymenoptera when the reproductive organs have been
destroyed
by the parasite Stylops. Wallace suggested that they are in part to be
explained as recognition characters, in part as an indication of surplus
vital activity in the male. |
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Male and female birds of paradise |
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