274 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CH. vn 



ing the dress of the ants would be enabled to secure 

 an abundant supply of food. 1 



The much greater frequency of Mimicry with 

 insects than with other animals, and the perfection of 

 the phenomenon in them, are probably to be ascribed 

 to their small size and defenceless condition as a 

 whole. These characters, combined with their amazing 

 fertility, the extent to which they are preyed upon by 

 the larger animals, and the quickness of succession of 

 their generations are reasons why the operation of 

 natural selection produces mimetic and other pro- 

 tective resemblances more numerous and more 

 wonderful than in any section of the animal kingdom. 

 Hence the abundance and striking nature of imitation 

 in the tropics, where insect life is most luxuriant, 

 where the succession of the generations is more rapid, 

 and where the mutual strife between the attacked 

 forms and their attackers is considerably keener than 

 in temperate and cold climates. 



1 Proc. Entom. Soc. Lond., 1878, p. xiv. 



