On the disguises of nature : being an inquiry into the laws which regulate external form and colour in plants and animals / by Andrew Murray.

  • Murray, Andrew.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the disguises of nature : being an inquiry into the laws which regulate external form and colour in plants and animals / by Andrew Murray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and bright green in their youth, but fall into the sear and yellow leaf in the same way and at the same time of year as their prototype. A genus of locusts (Eremobia), which is confined to sandy deserts (Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Sahara, &c.) furnishes another very striking example. The locusts found in less arid regions have the colours vivid, the upper wing brown or green, and the lower often bright blue or red. In the desert species, the body and upper wing are subdued to the same tone as that of the sand of the desert, and the lower wing has faded into a pale pink ; and this concordance of colour exists in all the Eremohias or desert-livers which have yet been described, the pale pink colour of the under wing only being in one or two species replaced by a similarly faint shade of yellow, which is obviously equally well adapted to the purpose of harmonising with sandy ground, and possibly indicates a yellower tinge in the sand of the particular dis- trict which those so coloured inhabit. The orthopterous in- sects, known as walking-sticks, exhibit an imitation of an- other character. Their resemblance to dried sticks and straws is most perfect; and their long awkward-looking legs, sprawling in every direction, add to the deception. In their last and complete stage, they have little wings like dried leaves ; and in some species, imitations of dried leaves, or rather of broken portions of dried leaves, are also ap- pended to their legs. In the Lepidoptera (more especially the moths), we find not less resemblance to surrounding objects. So much is this the case with them, that few can be found which are not so provided. The great majority pass the day in quiescence, resting on the trunks of trees, under leaves, or on rocks, walls, or stones ; and so exactly do they resemble the object on which they rest, that even when we see them fly from one spot to another, and alight under our very eyes, few but an entomologist would detect them. The pattern of speckled gray which generally composes the upper wing, although marked enough when displayed in a cabinet, is in reality a marvel of imitative skill. If any one will take a walk round a country house, and look carefully along the walls, he will probably see a number of moths resting on them, every one so ingeniously deceptive that he will readily admit that he