50 THE CAUSES WHICH PROPAGATE 



Herculean Ant of Europe. This seems a jealousy among females ; 

 but love is the spring- of action in the case of the solitary kinds, 

 whose winged males when contesting a female often finish by de- 

 vouring rather than relinquish her. Butterflies and some moths 

 attack their sex or kind, rising in air, and striking or breaking their 

 wings ; the Painted Lady, in its jealousy that the sunbeam should 

 fall on its beauty, darting from its seat after the passing birds 

 and intercepting shadows. The males of a chivalrous Dolichopus 

 dash like fighting- cocks in one another^s faces, and the common 

 Crane Flies are likewise said to engage. The emission of odours 

 that accompanies the paroxysm of fear may als6 express anger, 

 as in the case of two Rove Beetles meeting (Plate I., Fig. 9) ; 

 or in that of the ants seen fighting by Huber, who seized each 

 other, and, rearing upon their hind legs, mutually spurted their 

 acid. 



These combats, it has been urged, tend towards a selection 

 of healthy males, which is doubtless true ; but volition, even as 

 regards the social kinds, would rather seem to be presided over 

 by a natural law of masculine priority in appearance, submitting 

 the males to each and every sublunary influence, and renderingthem 

 inured to manifold terrestrial strife previous to propagating their 

 kind. This is established in respect to various insects. Stag Beetles, 

 Saw Flies, Gall Flies, with others ; and is rendered especially 

 conspicuous as regards butterflies, by the appearance of showy 

 gallants, such as the ringed Apollos on Swiss pasture, and in 

 this land the male Marbled Whites and Browns fluttering in 

 their summer haunts, ere yet a solitary female is to be seen. 

 It is likewise the common experience of those who watch their 

 moths emerge in the breeding-cages, and should be generally 

 true in respect to insects. 



Love in insects seeks similar expression to fear, and secre- 

 tions, it is to be believed, furnish suitable means of intercourse, 

 especially in fragrance-loving creatures like butterflies. Quite 

 lately Dr. Fritz Miiller, who is prosecuting entomological 

 research in the virgin forests of Brazil, stated that he was 

 brought to consider as sexual organs for the diffusion of odours 

 the various pencils, tufts and manes of hair, and the chalky, 

 silky, or velvety spots of peculiar scales, as well as the recurved 

 margin or other pouches enclosing pale buff or white down. 



