386 SEXUAL SELECTION. Part II. 



CHAPTEK XL 



Insects, continued. — Order Lepidoptera. 



Courtship of "butterflies — Battles — Ticking noise — Colours com- 

 mon to both sexes, or more brilliant in the males — Examples — 

 Not due to the direct action of the conditions of life — Colours 

 adapted for protection — Colours of moths — Display — Per- 

 ceptive powers of the Lepidoptera — Variability — Causes of the 

 difference in colour between the males and females — Mimickry, 

 female butterflies more brilliantly coloured than the males — 

 Bright colours of caterpillars — Summary and concluding re- 

 marks on the secondary sexual characters of insects — Birds and 

 insects compared. 



In this great Order the most interesting point for us is 

 the difference in colour between the sexes of the same 

 species, and between the distinct species of the same 

 genus. Nearly the whole of the following chapter will 

 be devoted to this subject ; but I will first make a few 

 remarks on one or two other points. Several males may 

 often be seen pursuing and crowding round the same 

 female. Their courtship appears to be a prolonged affair, 

 for I have frequently watched one or more males pirouet- 

 ting round a female until I became tired, without seeing 

 the end of the courtship. Although butterflies are such 

 weak and fragile creatures, they are pugnacious, and an 

 Emperor butterfly x has been captured with the tips of 

 its wings broken from a conflict with another male. 

 Mr. Collingwood in speaking of the frequent battles 



1 Apatura Iris : ' The Entomologist's "Weekly Intelligencer,' 1859, 

 p. 139. For the Bornean Butterflies see C. Collingwood, 'Bamblea of 

 a Naturalist,' 1868, p. 183. 



