Elementary biology; an introduction to Elementary biology; an introduction to the science of life elementarybiolog00grue Year: 1924 PROTECTIVE PIGMENTS AND APPEARANCES 35 What is perhaps the most remarkable resemblance between an animal and a part of its surroundings is furnished by the East India butterfly Kallima (Fig. 172). The undersurface of the wings, exposed when this butterfly is at rest, resembles a brown leaf with a distinct midrib and veins passing from this to the edges. Near one end is a dark spot close to a nearly transparent area, resembling very much the kind of spot often pro
Elementary biology; an introduction to Elementary biology; an introduction to the science of life elementarybiolog00grue Year: 1924 PROTECTIVE PIGMENTS AND APPEARANCES 35 What is perhaps the most remarkable resemblance between an animal and a part of its surroundings is furnished by the East India butterfly Kallima (Fig. 172). The undersurface of the wings, exposed when this butterfly is at rest, resembles a brown leaf with a distinct midrib and veins passing from this to the edges. Near one end is a dark spot close to a nearly transparent area, resembling very much the kind of spot often produced by the action of some fungus. The details are very sharply defined and almost uniform. If one of us should see a flying kallima come to rest on a twig, he should perhaps have some difficulty in distinguishing the insect among the leaves ; it is pos- sible also that the lizards and birds that feed upon this species are some- times baflfled in their pursuit of prey. Yet it is doubtful (i) whether the ad- vantage of this resemblance has had anything to do with its gradual appear- ance as a character of this species, and (2) whether, indeed, it is an advantage (see Fig. 171). Fig. 172. The Indian leaf butter- fly (Art///z«a). (Slightly reduced) Many arguments concerning the evo- lution of animal life have been based on the striking resemblance between the wings of this insect when at rest and brown leaves. It has been said that the animal looks like a leaf only when it comes to rest with the head up ; but observers who have seen the animal in its native surroundings tell us that it always comes to rest head dow7i, on guard against lizards. In this position it is sufficiently con- spicuous to be recognized even by untrained human eves 403. Warning colors. We saw that some of the wastes produced in Hving bodies are poisonous (see p. 203), and we can understand that the presence of these poisons in the body of a plant or an animalHvould make such a body undesirable as food f
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