518 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



The relation of the markings to the areas is still further shown in a curi- 

 ous way. Transverse markings, as has been said, are a predominating 

 feature of butterfly ornamentation. If in the transverse markings of the 

 outer part of the wing, there is a break, a sudden shift of direction, a 

 removal, perhaps, of a fragment of a band to one side ; such a change 

 invariably takes place, I believe, at the line of demarcation between the 

 areas or at one of the immediately adjacent veins ; never within the 

 limits proper of any one area. On the front wings of the lowest butter- 

 flies we frequently find a submarginal band of spots, of which one or two 

 are situated in the space between the adjacent branches of the second and 

 third veins. The continuity of this otherwise uniform band is almost 

 always broken by the shifting of these particular spots a little toward the 

 maro-in of the wino-. This is a single instance of which very many could 

 be given. 



It will be seen then that the relation of the markings of the wing to the 

 disposition of the underlying framework is an important one, and actually 

 seems to increase in importance with the complexity of tlie ornamentation ; 

 so that the study of the diversity of patterns becomes an intellectual pleas- 

 ure. Indeed my first appreciation of this relation arose from the necessity 

 of carefully describing these markings for the present work ; it was not 

 until the minute examination which this required had forced it upon me 

 that I learned how subservient is ornamentation to the requirements of 

 structure, or how much reflex light was thrown by mere color patterns 

 upon the very plan of structure itself. 



In all that has been said I have only attempted to trace the probable 

 lines alono- which ornamentation increased in complexity. Causes I have 

 purposely left in the background, although I have here and there intimated 

 that I do not believe change is wholly due either to the action of physical 

 ao-encies or to natural selection. That each of these forces has born its 

 part in the work, there can, I think, be little doubt ; but in a case like 

 this, where we find beauty of the most exquisite and refined character in 

 creatures of an inherently low organization, I can only express a deep- 

 seated conviction that a preordaining purpose and plan governs these 

 proximate causes, and that beneath both structure and beauty we may dis- 

 cern far-reaching and controlling thought. 



And here I cannot do better than translate the following passage from 

 Werneburg, first read after the above essay was written. "When we 

 consider." says he, "the variety and in many cases the remarkable splen- 

 dor of color which is not only peculiar to Lepidoptera in a far higher 

 degree than to any other group of insects, but which is also displayed 

 before the eyes of the observer in a remarkable way ; and when we further 

 remember that in many cases the color is not of the slightest use to the 

 creatures themselves, but rather of disadvantage by its lustre and brilliancy, 



