HO 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 161. 



points, vapor pressures, osmotic pressure, difTu- 

 sion, speed of chemical reaction and to the 

 phase rule. 



RoBT. B. "Warder. 



Observation on the Coloration of Insects. By 

 Brunner von Wattenwyl. Translated by 

 Edward J. Bles, B.Sc, King's College, 

 Cambridge. Leipsic, Engelmann. Fol. Pp. 

 viii + 16. 9 plates. 



In 1873, and again ten years later, Brunner 

 published essays on 'hypertely,' or extrava- 

 gance in nature, which are practically the 

 foundation of the present work, in which an 

 attempt is made to classify the fundamental 

 phenomena of coloration in insects. These are 

 treated of under the headings of uniform color- 

 ation, stripes and spots, the line of orientation 

 (' indicating the position assumed by the insect 

 in receiving its coloration'), strokes and dots, 

 eyespots, spirals, splash marks, cloudings, 

 stencil patterns, erosion, changes in pattern, 

 enlargement or diminution of spots and bands, 

 discoloration, diminution of patterns, changes 

 due to adaptation, staining of contiguous parts, 

 fading in covered parts, coloring in relation to 

 position, and finally, as the summation of the 

 whole, the arbitrariness of coloration. One 

 quotation from the section on stencil patterns 

 may be given as a good sample of his illus- 

 trations : 



' ' In Pseudocreobotra ocellata Serv. one sees 

 on the transparent, somewhat yellowish ground 

 of the fore wings, firstly, a green patch, laid on 

 as with a stencil. Then, in the middle of the 

 green portion, opaque, citron yellow is laid on 

 in the form of a spiral. The spiral is bordered 

 with a heavy black line and in the center of 

 the spiral there is a round spot of the same 

 color. 



" The black line obviously is meant to serve 

 as a setting of the yellow spiral, yet careful ex- 

 amination reveals that the black marking is 

 bodily shifted slightly inwards towards the 

 insertion of the wing. For on this side, be- 

 tween the yellow spiral and the black line, a 

 narrow strip of the green ground shows, while 

 on the outer side the black border plainly en- 

 croaches upon the yellow ring. The shifting of 

 the black marking is still more plainly shown 



by the small central spot not lying where it 

 obviously should lie, but likewise shifted in- 

 wards. 



"We have, consequently, three colors sten- 

 cilled on the glassy wings : first green, then 

 lemon yellow, and to complete the jjicture, a 

 black body color ; the latter is somewhat mis- 

 fitted, as it may also be at times in our colored 

 prints. 



" I wish to lay stress on the agreement in this 

 arrangement amongst all the many specimens 

 which have passed through my hands. The 

 idea can, therefore, not be entertained that the 

 negligence described is a mere chance occur- 

 rence in one individual. The species was orna- 

 mented once for all, and just as it emerged 

 from this operation, so has it been transmitted 

 by inheritance." 



He further mentions, in his final division, the 

 case of an Acridiau of the genus Mastax, in 

 which a yellow stripe on the sides of the body 

 includes the lower third of the facetted eyes, 

 ' ' and, as the stripe is formed by a body pig- 

 ment, there is no doubt that the power of vision 

 is destroyed in the part affected." 



The author concludes that "the careless 

 splashings, the defective stencil patterns or the 

 impairment of vision by a band laid over the 

 eyes and many other facts met with in the 

 study of coloration cannot be brought into re- 

 lation with any purposeful tendency. If one, 

 therefore, calls modification through natural 

 selection, Darwinism, a new name [Brunner- 

 ism ?] must be introduced for the undoubtedly 

 demonstrable occurrence of phenomena in the 

 whole living world which have no relation to 

 their owners or are occasionally harmful to 

 them and hence are certainly not the result of 

 selection." 



Brunner combats the possibility of any grad- 

 ual assumption of the more striking features, 

 including the phenomena of mimicry, and, 

 therefore, contends that they cannot be the re- 

 sult of natural selection ; but he formulates no 

 new law or process by which they can be pre- 

 sumed to have come into being, and so is forced 

 to conclude that in the coloration of insects 

 ' ' we meet with an arbitrariness striving to pro- 

 duce attributes without regard for their posses- 

 sors, and, therefore, obviously to be looked 



