LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 89 



proved,) to be the case with the perceptions of 

 sound."* 



PAIRING OF LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS. 



IN almost all insects, there is great variety in 

 the colour of the males and females ; and in many 

 they are so different in form, as to be taken for 

 different species. 



In butterflies, the males are usually of a brighter 

 colour than the females, and, not unfrequently, of 

 totally different colours. Want of experience in 

 this department, led the great Linnaeus into an 

 egregious blunder ; for he considered them not only 

 specifically distinct, but also as belonging to different 

 families. His divisions of Trojans and Grecians is, 

 in many instances, liable to this objection. The male 

 Brimstone Butterfly, (Goneptyrex rhamni,) is of a 

 beautiful sulphur yellow ; while the female is of a 

 dirty greenish white. In the Orange-tip Butterfly, 

 (Pontia cardamines,) so named from the fine orange 

 spot towards the points of its superior wings, the 

 spot is possessed by the male only. The male Argus 

 Butterfly, (Polyommatus argus,') has the upper surface 

 of the superior wings of a dark mazareen blue ; while 

 those of the female are of a deep brownish purple. 



The female butterflies are less frequently to be 

 seen than the males, as they conceal themselves in 



* Encyclopaedia MetropoUtana, Article LIGHT. 



