242 CRABRONID&, 
have a transverse band on the fourth segment of the abdo- 
men, generally also accompanied by the other bands being 
more strongly coloured, the legs likewise participate and 
incline more to yellow or are marked with yellow, whereas 
they are usually red; and I could adduce very many other 
instances. It is singular, that the intensity affects only the 
thorax, and rarely the head; for as the legs originate from 
the thorax, I may here consider them as forming a part . 
of it. Those parts of the thorax usually affected are the 
collar, tubercles, scutellum, and post-dorsolum, with occa- 
sionally the metathorax. What determines the colour to 
these parts? I have no theory to propound, for theorising 
in this science has been converted into the alias of dogma- 
tising which, without a solecism, may fairly be considered 
the ‘ Romance of Natural History.’ Does it arise from a 
superabundant secretion of the colouring matter in the 
‘pupa state dependant upon the food of the larva, yet not 
in its quantity but quality, for the most highly coloured are 
not always the largest; and this superabundance, after sup- 
plying the abdomen as far as the specific limitations allow, 
finds vent at those parts of the thorax? Or, on a defective 
secretion, does specific identity better bear its deficiency on 
the thorax than it would on the abdomen? By specific 
identity I allude to the facility of our discriminating them, 
and not to sexual discrimination; for evidently an instinct 
and not sight determines that impulse to its object. And 
this view, I think, I may indulge, for we are allowed to 
consider the creation as subjected to man’s intellect, and 
for the exercise of his faculties, which without some clue 
would frequently be at fault: therefore may we not thus, 
even in the trivial circumstance of colour, trace a proof of 
design? I do not hereby assert that structure would not 
present more permanent characters, but in such small 
