TOO
V. R. BURKHARDT
Not content with the normal camouflage to baffle their enemies certain butterflies actually mimic other species which, on account of the feeding habits of their larvae are unpalatable to their predators. It has been stated in entomological works that Danaus plexippus, the Milkweeds Butterfly, enjoys this immunity, but so far no one has offered proof. The Howling Bird, Megalaima virens, or Great Chinese barbet, is found in the Colony and occasionally is kept as a cage bird. It feeds on fruit, but prefers grasshoppers and insects if it can get them. A wasp, or hornet penetrating into its cage is certain to be snapped up, and swallowed after the sting has been knocked out on the perch. A specimen of Danaus genutia, allied to the aforementioned D. plexippus, was dropped in at the top of the Barbet's cage, and eagerly seized. The moment the body was crushed, however, it was dropped on the floor and the bird spent quite a time cleaning its beak to remove the taste.
The female praying mantis cannot be called nice in her feeding habits, as she includes even her husband on the menu, but she will not eat one of the Danaidae family and, if one falls into her claws she will release it unharmed if touched with a stick.
This immunity from whetting someone's appetite has been capitalised by one of the Nymphalidae, Hypolimnas misippus, a really remarkable insect. The male is black with a large white patch in the centre of each wing, surrounded by brilliant blue. The female does not resemble it in the least, but has taken for her model Danaus chrysippus whose marking and colouring she has closely adopted. The butterfly has a wide distribution, but is nowhere very common except in South Africa where D. chrysippus is also very abundant. The mimic varies in size as does the model, and adopts the same slow, lazy flight in its company where it is almost indistinguishable from the unpalatable species.
One of the local Papilios, the common P. polytes has two forms of females. The usual one encountered has the same markings as the male, but a dimorphic form is a very good copy of Papilio aristolochiae whose larva feeds on a poisonous creeper. The model here is shunned by birds its scarlet body giving warning of nastiness. Papilio polytes differs in having a grey body but there are carmine splashes bordering the white on the lower wings, which probably render it some, if not all, immunity from attack.
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