508 Mr. G. Lewis' supplemental' if note on the 



which might assail them ; that the imago is short-lived, 

 and soon lays its eggs, so that protective colours are not 

 needed ; but all I wish to notice is the absence of pro- 

 tective colouring. It is true all are not brilliant ; the 

 Madagascar Buprestidce especially are dull and of peculiar 

 form, but the species of that curious fauna are, I 

 believe, not much exposed to the sun ; they live under the 

 thick foliage of the jungle. Some of them are brightly 

 metallic beneath, like Geotrupes hypncrita, to which I 

 shall refer. The Phiitop)hafia, again, are another group 

 remarkable for brilliancy, and have been modified 

 gradually with their food-plants, and there is little or no 

 sigh of protective colour in the family. Their tarsi are 

 an instance of beneficial form ; certain joints are en- 

 larged, and, absorbing others, have reduced the normal 

 number, giving the feet more power for clinging to 

 plant-leaves and shrubs. Use here has enlarged certain 

 parts, just as the village blacksmith acquires great 

 power in the muscles of the arm. And, while Nature 

 was thus busy modelling and remodelling their form, 

 would not protective colouring also have been given, if it 

 was in any way conducive to the welfare of the species ? 

 I think the external physical conditions of life are a 

 much more potent factor in creating form than is usually 

 supposed, for it is these conditions which cause the 

 Phytophaga to want to cling before the broad tarsus 

 develops. 



If we put aside gems and minerals, the colours of 

 which need not be noticed here, the oldest substance or 

 material existing, which throws off, what is called bright 

 colour from its surfaces, is that of living organisms. For 

 their hues are transmitted down through generations and 

 generations from a remote ancestry, not necessarily 

 hereditary, as understood in relation to the sexes, for 

 fuscous ants produce yellow ones ; but by reason of an 

 unremitting action of light waves on the surfaces of 

 their outer teguments through all their modifications 

 from the dawn of their existence. The most prevalent 

 colour in the world is that realised in the vegetable king- 

 dom, for in all grades of vegetation a ruling verdure 

 prevails over all other hues, and vegetation is, to say the 

 least, older than the coal-measures. To sustain and 

 render permanent that greenness, which we see so 

 universal in all climates, and under all the possible and 

 most variable physical conditions which exist in the 



