304 THE DESCENT OF MAN, 



CHAPTER XI. 



INSECTS, CONTINUED.— ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. 

 (Butterflies and Moths.) 



Courtship of butterflies— Battles— Ticking noise— Colors common to 

 both sexes, or more brilliant in the males— Examples— Not due to the 

 direct action of the conditions of life— Colors adapted for protec- 

 tion—Colors of moths— Display— Perceptive pov/ers of the Lepi- 

 doplera— Variability— Causes of the difference in color between the 

 males and females— Mimicry, female butterflies more brilliantly 

 colored than the males— Bright colors of caterpillars — Summary and 

 concluding remarks on the secondary sexual characters of insects 

 — Birds and insects compared. 



In this great Order the most interesting points for us are the 

 differences in color between the sexes of the same species, and be- 

 tween the distinct species of the same genus. Nearly the whole 

 of the following chapter will be devoted to this subject; but I will 

 first make a few remarks on one or two other points. Several 

 males may often be seen pursuing and crowding round the same 

 female. Their courtship appears to be a prolonged affair, for I 

 have frequently watched one or more males pirouetting round a 

 female until I was tired, without seeing the end of the courtship. 

 Mr. A. G. Butler also informs me that lie has several times watched 

 a male courting a female for a full quarter of an hour; but she 

 pertinaciously refused him, and at last settled on the ground and 

 closed her wings, so as to escape from his addresses. 



Although butterflies are weak and fragile creatures, they are 

 pugnacious, and an Emperor butterfly' has been captured with the 

 tips of its wings broken from a conflict with another male. Mr. 

 Collingwood, in speaking of the frequent battles between the but- 

 terflies of Borneo, says, "They whirl round each other with the 

 "greatest rapidity, and appear to be incited by the greatest fe- 

 "rocity." 



The Ageronia feronia makes a noise like that produced by a 



' Apatura Iris: 'The Entomologist's Weekly Intelligence,' 1859, p. 139. 

 For the Bornean Butterflies, see C. Collingwood, 'Rambles of a 

 Naturalist,' 1S6S, p. 183. 



