Chap. XI. Butterflies and Moths. 307 



CHAPTER XL 



Insects, continued. — Order Lepidopteba. 

 (butterflies and moths.) 



courtship of butterflies — Battles — Ticking noise — Colours common 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 — Perceptive powers of the Lepidoptera — 

 Variability — Causes of the difference in colour between the males and 

 females — Mimicry, female butterflies more brilliantly coloured than 

 the males — Bright colours of caterpillars — Summary and concluding 

 :emarks on the secondary sexual characters of insects — Birds and insects 

 om pared. 



In this great Order the most interesting points for us are the 

 differences 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 was tired, without seeing the 

 end of the courtship. Mr. A. G. Butler also informs me that 

 he has several times watched a male courting a female for a full 

 quarter of an hour ; but she pertinaciously refused him, and at 

 last settled on the ground and closed her wings, so as to escape 

 from his addresses. 



Although butterflies are weak and fragile creatures, they are 

 pugnacious, and an Emperor butterfly l has been captured with 

 the tips of its wings broken from a conflict with another male. 

 Mr. Collingwoocl, in speaking of the frequent battles between the 

 butterflies .of Borneo, says, " They whirl round each other with 

 " the greatest rapidity, and appear to be incited by the greatest 

 " ferocity." 



The Ageronia feronia makes a noise like that produced by a 



toothed wheel passing under a spring catch, and which can be 



heard at the distance of several yards : I noticed this sound at 



Eio de Janeiro, only when two of these butterflies were chasing 



each other in an irregular course, so that it is probably made 



during the courtship of the sexes. 2 



1 Apatura Iris: 'The Entomolo- Naturalist,' 1868, p. 183. 



gist's Weekly Intelligence,' 1859, p. 2 See my 'Journal of Researches,' 



139. For the Bornean Butterflies^, 1845, p. 33. Mr. Doubleday has 



«ee C. Collin^wocd, ' Rambles of a detected (' Proc. Ent. Soc' March 



