INFLUENCE OF SUNLIGHT. 153 



their beauties. Their diminutive size also renders 

 them less attractive than they might otherwise 

 prove, since we are generally most pleased with 

 the beauty of an object when its size makes it so 

 manifest to our eyes, as to render it impossible 

 it should escape our attention. 



It is a very remarkable fact, and corresponds, 

 to a certain extent, with the influence of the same 

 agent upon plants* that light seems to be in some 

 measure necessary in order to develop the colours 

 of the larva. Thus it has been noticed, that 

 those larvae which are, by their habits, much in 

 darkness, dwelling, perhaps, in caves of the earth, 

 or immured in the heart of a piece of timber, or 

 inhabiting a cell scooped out of the solid rock, 

 are, most frequently, of a uniform whitish colour. 

 Some experiments have shown that when these 

 whitish larvse have been brought out of darkness 

 and exposed to the sunlight, their colour has 

 turned to brown. Very probably this effect is due 

 to precisely the same kind of change as takes place 

 when a fair-skinned European travels into a south- 

 ern clime, his face and hands becoming so brown, 

 tanned, and dark, as to form a ludicrous contrast 

 * Tide "The Life of a Tree." 



