Darwin s Theory of Sexual Selection 185 



colors of butterflies, and of some few moths, have commonly 

 been acquired for the sake of protection. We have seen 

 that their colors and elegant patterns are arranged and ex- 

 hibited as if for display. Hence I am led to believe that the 

 females prefer or are most excited by the more brilliant 

 males ; for on any other supposition the males would, as far 

 as we can see, be ornamented to no purpose. We know that 

 ants and certain lamellicorn beetles are capable of feeling 

 an attachment for each other, and that ants recognize their 

 fellows after an interval of several months. Hence there is 

 no abstract improbability in the Lepidoptera, which probably 

 stand nearly or quite as high in the scale as these insects, 

 having sufficient mental capacity to admire bright colors. 

 They certainly discover flowers by color." 



So far as the evidence of ants having an attachment for 

 each other is concerned, we may eliminate this part of the 

 argument, since the evidence on which the statement is based 

 is now regarded as only showing that ants recognize each 

 other by their sense of smell, which resides in the anten- 

 nae. Hence the so-called fondling means only that the 

 ants are trying by smell to determine the odor of the other 

 individual. 



Darwin points out a number of cases in which the females 

 are more brightly colored than the males, and for such cases 

 he reverses the process of selection, supposing that the males 

 have been discriminating, and have not " gladly accepted any 

 female." No explanation is offered to account for this 

 reversal of instinct, in fact, no evidence to show that such a 

 reversal really exists. Darwin points out that in most cases 

 the male insect carries the female during the period of union, 

 while in two species of butterflies, Colias edusa and hyale, the 

 females carry the males, and the females are here the more 

 highly colored. He suggests that since in this case "the 

 females take the more active part in the final marriage cere- 

 mony, so we may suppose that they likewise do so in the 



