Chap. XI. BUTTEEFLIES AND MOTHS. 407 



some days to deposit tlieir fertilised ova and to search 

 for a proper place; during this period (whilst the life 

 of the male was of no importance) the brighter-coloured 

 females would be exposed to clanger and would be 

 liable to be destroyed. The duller-coloured females on 

 the other hand would survive, and thus would in- 

 fluence, it might be thought, in a marked manner the 

 character of the species, — either of both sexes or of 

 one sex, according to which form of inheritance pre- 

 vailed. But it must not be forgotten that the males 

 emerge from the cocoon-state some days before the 

 females, and during this period, whilst the unborn 

 females were safe, the brighter-coloured males would be 

 exposed to danger ; so that ultimately both sexes w r ould 

 probably be exposed during a nearly equal length of 

 time to clanger, and the elimination of conspicuous 

 colours would not be much more effective in the one 

 than the other sex. 



It is a more important consideration that female 

 Lepicloptera, as Mr. Wallace remarks, and as is known 

 to every collector, are generally slower flyers than 

 the males. Consequently the latter, if exposed to 

 greater danger from being conspicuously coloured, 

 might be able to escape from their enemies, whilst the 

 similarly-coloured females would be destroyed ; and thus 

 the females would have the most influence in modi- 

 fying the colour of their progeny. 



There is one other consideration : bright colours, as 

 far as sexual selection is concerned, are commonly of 

 no service to the females ; so that if the latter varied 

 in brightness, and the variations were sexually limited 

 in their transmission, it would depend on mere chance 

 whether the females had their bright colours increased ; 

 and this would tend throughout the Order to diminish 

 the number of species with brightly-coloured females 



