293 THE CAUSES WHICH 



butes in his happiest mood to the circumstance that^ durins^ 

 many successive generations^ each insular individual which flew 

 least, either from its wings having been ever so little less per- 

 fectly developed, or from indolent habit, has escaped being 

 blown to sea, and that the beetle population of this and the 

 adjacent rocky pinnacles have come to inherit a character that 

 has been gradually transmitted from sire to son. 



Although the species of Coleoptera which are mostly erected on 

 outward appearance when in the perfect state, and seldom checked 

 by rearing from the larva where they present less character, 

 do not afford the same excellence of test in regard to colour 

 variety as the Lepidoptera, yet we have seen locality produces 

 a variation in this attribute, and on southern confines of Europe 

 especially a decided variability of tint in some of the brighter 

 Paltearctic kinds may be remarked. The Rose Beetles [Cetonia), 

 or Ground Beetles of the genus Carabus, may be selected to 

 illustrate this. Cetonia mefallica, Fab., Mons. Miilsant remarks 

 in his woi'k on European Coleoptera, in the cold and tem- 

 perate parts of France has the head eoj^pery and the wing-cases 

 marked with three fasciae ; while in the typical kind the head is 

 violet and the fasciae are less entire, often mere spots. Again, in 

 the variety Olivacea proper to the warmer portions of Provence, 

 the head becomes a more pronounced coppery- violet, and the fasciae 

 on the elytra have generally disappeared. The body also has 

 assumed that transparent or varnished chafer lusti'e, which in a 

 greater degree distinguishes those individuals from the fervid 

 climates of Corsica and Italy that constitute a variety Florentina. 

 Another sport of Fieber^s of a Kermes red Kermesma appears 

 not to occur in France. The Cetonia y^nea has a variety, 

 AlhiguUata, proper to the Alpine regions, which is of a semi- 

 golden green ; but in the warmer districts around Lyons, the 

 upper portion of the body is of a shining bronzed green, and no 

 longer presents a varnished lustre. The southern varieties of 

 our own Rose Beetle, it may be stated on the same authority, 

 are of a violet hue, and some of its sports are hairy. According 

 to Mr. Rye, male beetles when dwarfed lose distinctive horns, 

 large jaws, or " formation '' of the hind femora ; and on the 

 other hand a small specimen of Osj^hya bijninctata has occurred 

 combining the male colouring with the female form ; so that . 



