Then there are the spotted or eyed cats, such as the leopard, which live among trees; and their peculiar coloring renders them less conspicuous by simulating spots of light which penetrate through foliage.  So also many caterpillars are marked with spots, eyes, or patches of color.  Lastly, there are the jungle cats, of which the tiger is the typical species, and which have stripes, rendering them very difficult to see among the brown grass which they frequent.  It may, perhaps, be said that this comparison fails, because the stripes of tigers are perpendicular, while those of caterpillars are either longitudinal or oblique.  This, however, so far from constituting a real difference, confirms the explanation; because in each case the direction of the lines follows that of the foliage.  The tiger, walking horizontally on the ground, has transverse bars; the caterpillar, clinging to the grass in a vertical position, has longitudinal lines; while those which live on large-veined leaves have oblique lines, like the oblique ribs of the leaves.

Red and blue are rare colors among caterpillars.  Omitting minute dots, we have six species more or less marked with red or orange.  Of these, two are spiny, two hairy, and one protected by scent-emitting tentacles.  The orange medio-dorsal line of the Bedford Butterfly is not very conspicuous, and has been omitted in some descriptions.  Blue is even rarer than red; in fact, none of our butterfly larvae can be said to exhibit this color.

Now let us turn to the moths.  I have taken all the larger species, amounting to rather more than one hundred and twenty; out of which sixty-eight are hairy or downy; and of these forty-eight are marked with black or gray, fifteen brown or brownish, two yellowish-green, one bluish-gray, one striped with yellow and black, and one reddish-gray.  There are two yellowish-green hairy species, which might be regarded as exceptions:  one, that of the Five-spotted Burnet-moth, is marked with black and yellow, and the other is variable in color, some specimens of this caterpillar being orange.  This last species is also marked with black, so that neither of these species can be considered of the green color which serves as a protection.  Thus, among the larger caterpillars, there is not a single hairy species of the usual green color.  On the other hand, there are fifty species with black or blackish caterpillars, and of these forty-eight are hairy or downy.

In ten of our larger moths the caterpillars are more or less marked with red.  Of these, three are hairy, one is an internal feeder, four have reddish lines, which probably serve for protection by simulating lines of shadow, and one, the Euphorbia Hawk-moth, is inedible.  The last, the striped Hawk-moth, is rare, and I have never seen the caterpillar; but to judge from figures, the reddish line and spots would render it, not more, but less conspicuous amongst the low herbage which it frequents.