INSECTS. 373 



Sexual selection implies that the more attractive indi- 

 viduals are preferred by the opposite sex ; and as with 

 insects, when the sexes differ, it is the male which, with 

 some rare exceptions, is the more ornamented, and departs 

 more from the type to which the species belongs; and as it 

 is the male which searches eagerly for the female, we must 

 suppose that the females habitually or occasionally prefer 

 the more beautiful males, and that these have thus acquired 

 their beauty. That the females in most or all the orders 

 would have the power of rejecting any particular male, is 

 probable from the many singular contrivances possessed by 

 the males, such as great jaws, adhesive cushions, spines, 

 elongated legs, etc., for seizing the female; for these con- 

 trivances show that there is some difficulty in the act, 

 so that her concurrence would seem necessary. Judging 

 from what we know of the perceptive powers and affections 

 of various insects, there is no antecedent improbability in 

 sexual selection having come largely into play; but we have 

 as yet no direct evidence on this head, and some facts are 

 opposed to the belief. Nevertheless, when we see many 

 males pursuing the same female, we can hardly believe that 

 the pairing is left to blind chance that the female exerts 

 no choice, and is not influenced by the gorgeous colors or 

 other ornaments with which the male is decorated. 



If we admit that the females of the Homoptera and 

 Orthoptera appreciate the musical tones of their male part- 

 ners, and that the various instruments have been perfected 

 through sexual selection, there is little improbability in the 

 females of other insects appreciating beauty in form or 

 color, and consequently in such characters having been 

 thus gained by the males. But from the circumstance of 

 color being so variable, and from its having been so often 

 modified for the sake of protection, it is difficult to decide 

 in how large a proportion of cases sexual selection has 

 played a part. This is more especially difficult in those 

 orders, such as Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera, 

 in which the two sexes rarely differ much in color; for we 

 are then left to mere analogy. With the Coleoptera, how- 

 ever, as before remarked, it is in the great Lamellicorn 

 group, placed by some authors at the head of the order, 

 and in which we sometimes see a mutual attachment be- 

 tween the sexes, that we find the males of some species pos- 

 sessing weapons for sexual strife, others furnished with 



