408 SEXUAL SELECTION. [Part IL 



the female must have been a consenting party. Judging 

 from what we know of the perceptive powers and aifec- 

 tions of various insects, there is no antecedent improba- 

 bility in sexual selection having come largely into action ; 

 but we have as yet no direct evidence on this head, and 

 some facts are opposed to the belief. Nevertheless, when 

 we sec many males pursuing the same female, Ave can 

 hardly believe that the jjairing 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 alone is decorated. 



If we admit that the females of the Homoptera and 

 Orthoptera appreciate the musical tones emitted by their 

 male partners, and that the various instruments for this 

 purpose 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 pro- 

 tection, it is extremely difficult to decide in how large a 

 proportion of cases sexual selection has come into play. 

 This is more especially difiicult in those Orders such as the 

 Ox'thoptera, Hymcnoptera, and Coleoptera, in which the 

 two sexes rarely differ much in color ; for Ave are thus cut 

 off from our best evidence of some relation between the 

 reproduction of the species and color. With the Coleop- 

 tera, however, as before remarked, it is in the great lamel- 

 licorn group, placed by some authors at the head of tlie 

 Order, and in Avhich we sometimes see a mutual attach- 

 ment between the sexes, tliat Ave find the males of some 

 species possessing Aveapons for sexual strife, others fur- 

 nished with Avonderful horns, many Avith stridulating or- 

 gans, and others ornamented Avith splendid metallic tints. 

 Hence it seems probable that all these characters have 



