XXIV. 



ANTIGENY ; OR SEXUAL DIVERSITY IN BUTTER- 

 FLIES 



If male and female butterflies of the same spe- 

 cies always resembled each other more than either 

 resembled the same sex of an allied species, the 

 work of the systematist would be easy, and we may 

 perhaps add, — stupid. No such simplicity, no 

 such stupidity, is in store for him. Nature is con- 

 stantly perplexing him, piquing his curiosity, test- 

 ing the sharpness of his wit, and leading him on 

 from one comparison or one conclusion to another, 

 till he finds himself confronted with questions of 

 deepest interest and wide purport. It matters lit- 

 tle what branch of zoology a student may follow ; 

 modern science, with its new questions born of 

 evolution, will not leave the mind to stagnate. 



By secondary sexual diversity, or antigeny, as it 

 may be more briefly termed, is meant all such ac- 

 cessory peculiarities of one sex or the other as are 

 not directly connected with generation. They are 



