COLOUR SCHEMES. 51 



We may remember that the colour schemes of the very great majority 

 of insects have to us no meaning 1 . The few that exhibit Batesian or 

 Mullerian mimicry or are warningly coloured, are a very small part even 

 of known insects. The ordinary insect picked up at haphazard does not 

 fall into any class ; we can see sometimes that the colouring perhaps 

 blends in several schemes, cryptic, warning, sexual and the like ; but we 

 cannot judge in the least of the real value or significance of the colour 

 schemes of nine-tenths of the known insects. It would not be surprising 

 if a growing knowledge produced a far profounder and truer interpreta- 

 tion of colour in insects, more in accordance with the real needs ancl 

 necessities of insect life. 



