Chap. X. NEUROPTERA. 361 



blue, and black; but as throughout the Order the 

 two sexes rarely differ much in colour, it is doubtful 

 whether they owe these bright tints to sexual selection. 

 Conspicuous colours may be of use to these insects 

 as a protection, on the principle to be explained in the 

 next chapter, by giving notice to their enemies that 

 they are unpalatable. Thus it has been observed 44 

 that an Indian brightly-coloured locust was invariably 

 rejected when offered to birds and lizards. Some cases, 

 however, of sexual differences in colour in this Order 

 are known. The male of an American cricket 45 is de- 

 scribed as being as white as ivory, whilst the female 

 varies from almost white to greenish-yellow or dusky. 

 Mr. Walsh informs me that the adult male of Spectrum 

 femoratum (one of the Phasinidae) " is of a shining 

 " brownish-yellow colour; the adult female being of 

 " a dull, opaque, cinereous-brown; the young of both 

 " sexes being green." Lastly, I may mention that the 

 male of one curious kind of cricket 46 is furnished with 

 " a long membranous appendage, which falls over the 

 " face like a veil ; " but whether this serves as an orna- 

 ment is not known. 



Order, Neuroptera. — Little need here be said, except 

 in regard to colour. In the Ephenieridae the sexes 

 often differ slightly in their obscure tints; 47 but it is 

 not probable that the males are thus rendered attrac- 

 tive to the females. The Libellulidae or dragon-flies 

 are ornamented with splendid green, blue, yellow, and 



44 Mr. Ch. Home, in < Proc. Ent. Soc' May ^3, 1869, p. xii. 



45 The Oecanthus nivalis. Harris, 'Insects of New EDgland,' 1842, 

 p. 124. 



46 Platybknmus : Westwood, ' Modern. Class.' vol. i. p. 447. 



4 ? B. D. Walsh, the Pseudo-neuroptera of Illinois, in 'Proc. Ent. Soc. 

 of Philadelphia,' 1802, p. 3G1. 



