107 



that it is unnecessary to repeat it here. True it is that 

 it was then my sole province to discuss the causes which 

 would appear to regulate, in a large measure, the external 

 aspect of the Annulosa ; yet the existence of inconstancy, 

 in the several organs and characters involved (with which 

 alone we are now concerned), was, by the nature of the 

 case, implied : so that if the disturbing element was de- 

 monstrated, the mere fact that the thing (whatsoever it 

 may have been) was interfered with, was surely proved 

 a fortiori. I there pointed out the great proneness to 

 a change in hue which divers circumstances are apt to 

 induce; and I particularly instanced proximity to the 

 sea- shore, and other saline spots, as well as an attach- 

 ment to calcareous districts, as amongst the most power- 

 ful of the deranging contingences. In case, however, 

 that any further evidence should be looked for, on this 

 immediate subject, I will quote the following, relating 

 to the Bembidium Atlanticum of the Madeira Islands, 

 which was but just touched upon in that chapter, as a 

 concluding example of the general effect of physical 

 agents on the colour of these lower creatures. " Through- 

 out all the Madeiran Coleoptera there is perhaps no 

 insect which displays such an extraordinary range of 

 colouring as the present one does ; and although it is 

 true that the section of Bembidium to which it belongs is 

 essentially a variable one, yet I am not acquainted with 

 any Peryphus in which the paler patches of the elytra 

 are so remarkably unstable, or which appear to be so 

 completely under the control of external circumstances, 



