Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt:...insect permitted him to get so close that he seized it by the wings, and to his astonishment a part of the body remained behind as if the bird's dropping was very adhesive. He touched the dropping to see if it really was sticky, and found that his eyes had been deceived and that what he took for the excreta of a bird was a most artfully colored spider, lying on its back with its feet crossed and depressed closely to the body. The spider had been firmly holding the butterfly. A very pretty illustration of alluring coloration is furnished by the common spider (Misumrna vatia), which is often found spread out upon the yellow heart of an ox-eyed daisy and in like position upon Coreopsis (Plate V). It so closely resembles the flower upon which it lurks that the ordinary observer might well fail to notice its presence. The coloration facilitates the taking of prey and protects the creature from the assaults of enemies (Rev. H. C. McCook). It will be observed from the illustration that the flower is mostly yellow with some red; the same is true of the spider. This case is a very PLATE IIl.--Caterpillar. B, of a Geometer Moth (Proclamrndes transz/errata) on the stem of a plant (Ailan /zus), A. Illustrating Protective Resemblance. instructive illustration of alluring coloration by which the insect has become a living bait for entrapping butterflies and other insects. Nature has brought about this complete color adaptation, from the variations of myriads of spiders. For those ancestral spiders that varied most in the direction of color adaptation. to their environment were less often shunned by shy insects which could serve as prey. The spiders with useful color variations would thus most likely secure an abundance of food, and, thus living,...