Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-20
INSECTS AS ACTORS
CREATURES THAT CHANGE IN AP- PEARANcE TO ELupE ENEMIES.

Even the Lovely Butterfly Is Up to Tricks.
 Moths That Try to Look If They Had
 Iee Stines-Ants Copied by Spiders-A
 Caterpillar's Fierce Disguise.
 All creation below man Is in state of war, and any creature that cannot take care of itself quickly falls an unpitied vic. tim. Those that have teeth or claws or stings fight with them, and those that have mono of these are driven to seek safe- ty by aping the appearance and manner of some better endowed relative. Butter flies in general arc most helpless crea- tures but some of thorn are possessed of a peculiar defense. They have bad taste Birds that try to cat them find themselves made i'll and naturally stop the feast Now, the uniform of such :, butterfly is a valuable protection, and the sweet and edible butterflies that 1.-Two in tho same fields avail themselves of it.. If tho favored fly is red some butterflies that ought DOT. haps to be yellow are found arrayed in a shade of red which is a pretty close match of the one copied. If tho poisonous one has marked spot on his wings, the mi tator will grow U spot somewhat liko it. and even when the first has so distinctive a mark as n swallow tail wing tho posr hunted cousin is not discouraged, but sticks out an imitation spike at the end of his wing in tho hope of deceiying the eye of the ever watchful sparrow who is after him.
 It is not every individual of q hunted species that changes In this way. If they all changed, the birds would soon discover tho trick and it would become useless Sometimes when the hunted species is large one it is not safe even for thoso that do change all to copy the samo poisonous species. So sometimes they are found copying two or even three different spe- cics In this case tho eggs that ire laid by female of any of the colors will hatch out into all tho several kinds of flies It is remarkable that as the malo flies are stronger and of swifter flight than the female and better able to take caro of themselves they do not often change, but by keeping their original col or serve to decoy tho birds away from their mates and to keep up tho dclusion that tho imitation is intended to create.
 These disguises of tho butterfly arc won derful enough, but they arc all in tho family so to speak, and arc far surpassed by other insects who not finding any safe individual to copy among their own near relatives, take bold step and imitateia member of an entirely different family. There is a moth that has assumed the dis guiso of the belligerent bee quite success fully To do this he has himself matched with the down on his wings SO loose that buzz or two shake it all off and leave his wings transparent and gauzy like the bees Then he crawls around with an imitation of bees peculiar glide and does his best to look as if he had q sting. Tyn- bees moro or less successfully, but none that has gone so far to do so as this one.
 Mark Twain has called the ant very much overrnted bird. But if man has highly estimated this bird" he has but followed in the footsteps of nature, for the ant is one of natures favorites- She has made him so dry and hard and indigesti. ble that he requires specially constructed animal to eat him. Hence he lives and increases in comparative peace and is the envy of all his neighbors. He would doubt less have many imitators if it were not that ho is so hard to copy. But be has nevertheless found follower in Q certain spider. Now, there is O great difference between tho natural appearance of spider and an ant so great that tho spider, even if ho is a long, thin, black spider, might well bo discouraged, for he has eight legs, Hnu un aiib ldS eiAJ uud ilo uus tWO JULIUS to his body and an ant three. Yet ho is nothing daunted. By some system of tight facing or other he first manages to divide his abdominal bulb in two He does not get such a waist as an ant has, but he makes an apparent division, which is something. Then he walks on his six hind legs like an ant and waves his two foro legs in tho air like an ants antenn@, and, it is to be supposed, fancies himself indigestible.
 But perhaps the most wonderful imita- tion is where an insect copies not the nat ural appearance of another, but his appear anco when at work. There is kind of ant in South America who makes it his business to strip the leaves from the trees and carry them to his nest and the sight of one of these, struggling and often con cealed under his leaf, Is most common The ant, as stated before, has few enemies Now, there is found where this ant is com mon kind of fly that has grown upon its back sort of fin of the general shape of leaf and of bright green color, so that as it crawls around it night well be mistaken for one of these ants under leaf. Thus in its initiative zeal it has created feature which Is no part of the ant it copies.
 Of all these imitation warriors none Is so ambitious as one species of caterpillar. He is large, lizards like to eat him, and he is perfectly defenseless. When he Is at rest, he is like any other caterpillar, and no one would notice certain dark spots on his shoulders. But touch him, and at once he draws his. head back into his body and presents to view most ter rifying dragon face. The spots on his back now look like great saucer eyes, and his dark head forms beak of most bel ligerent aspect. The whole effect is ri- diculously fierce and must be seen to be