The Colours of Animals: Their Meaning and Use Especially Considered in the Case of Insects
Cover of first edition
Author
Edward Bagnall Poulton
Subject
Camouflage, Mimicry, Sexual selection
Genre
Natural history
Publisher
Kegan Paul, Trench & Trübner
Publication date
1890 (1890)
Publication place
United Kingdom
Pages
360
The Colours of Animals is a zoology book written in 1890 by Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton (1856–1943). It was the first substantial textbook to argue the case for Darwinian selection applying to all aspects of animal coloration. The book also pioneered the concept of frequency-dependent selection and introduced the term "aposematism".
The book begins with a brief account of the physical causes of animal coloration. The second chapter gives an overview of the book, describing the various uses of colour in terms of the advantages it can bring through natural selection. The next seven chapters describe camouflage, both in predators and in prey. Methods of camouflage covered include background matching, resemblance to specific objects such as bird droppings, self-decoration with materials from the environment, and the seasonal colour change of arctic animals. Two chapters cover warning colours, including both Batesian mimicry, where the mimic is edible, and Müllerian mimicry, where distasteful species mimic each other. A chapter then looks at how animals combine multiple methods of defence, for instance in the puss moth. Two chapters examine coloration related to sexual selection. Finally Poulton summarizes the subject with a fold-out table including a set of Greek derived words that he invented, of which "aposematic" and "cryptic" survive in biological usage.
The Colours of Animals was well received on its publication, although the book's support for sexual selection was criticised by Alfred Russel Wallace, and its Darwinism and critique of Lamarckism were attacked by Edward Drinker Cope. Wallace liked Poulton's experimental work but was critical of his opinions on sexual selection. The Neo-Lamarckian Cope criticised Poulton's support for Darwin but liked the book's many observations of animal coloration. Modern biologists respect Poulton's advocacy of natural selection and sexual selection, despite the lack at the time of an adequate theory of heredity, and his recognition of frequency-dependent selection.
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several separate reasons why animals have evolved colours. Camouflage enables an animal to remain hidden from view. Animals use colour to advertise services...
The term aposematism was coined by the English zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton in his 1890 book TheColoursofAnimals. He based the term on the Ancient...
p. liii. — Alfred Russel Wallace The drawing was published in Edward Bagnall Poulton's book TheColoursofAnimals. Poulton calls it an "Indian Mantis"...
destructively. Different colours therefore appear at different angles. In animals such as on the feathers of birds and the scales of butterflies, interference...
the term sympatric for evolution of species in the same place, and in his book TheColoursofAnimals (1890) was the first to recognise frequency-dependent...
again with the same care and precision as before". In his TheColoursofAnimals (1890), Edward Bagnall Poulton classified protective animal coloration...
List of Crayola crayon colors List of RAL colours List of X11 color names Index of color-related articles List of dyes This article includes a list of lists...
changed with the seasons, suggested an obvious explanation as an adaptation for concealment. Poulton's 1890 book, TheColoursofAnimals, written during...
"strategy of background matching" proposed by authors such as Alfred Russel Wallace (Darwinism, 1889), Edward Bagnall Poulton (TheColoursofAnimals, 1890)...
Asia. The English zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton, author ofTheColoursofAnimals (1890) described countershading in insects including the caterpillar...
dogs became rare. The modern breed derives from selective breeding from about 1980 of a few surviving animals. A breed society, the Società Amatori Cane...
Blue is one ofthe three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between...
corrections) Concealing-Coloration in theAnimal Kingdom (G. H. Thayer, 1909) TheColoursofAnimals (E. B. Poulton, 1890) Animal Coloration (F. E. Beddard, 1892)...
These are lists of national symbols: List of national animals List of national anthems List of national birds List of national dances List of national emblems...
The Party for theAnimals (Dutch: Partij voor de Dieren [pɑrˈtɛi voːr də ˈdiːrə(n)], PvdD) is a political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals...
one pigment, melanin. Many animals have pigments other than melanin, and some also have structural colours. Some definitions of albinism, whilst taking most...
were permitted for use by the common people. Most names of colors originate from the names of plants, flowers, and animals that bore or resembled them...
since animals with ineffective variants are likely to be killed. Naturalists since Edward B. Poulton in his 1890 book TheColoursofAnimals have noted...
theories relating to thecolours and markings ofanimals. Swan Sonnenschein. Cott, Hugh (1940). Adaptive Coloration in Animals. Oxford University Press...
animals are driven mad and deformed into grotesque shapes, and the people go insane or die one by one. Lovecraft began writing "The Colour Out of Space"...
changed with the seasons, suggested an obvious explanation as an adaptation for concealment. Poulton's 1890 book, TheColoursofAnimals, written during...
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