416 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



plainer males of tliese species closely resemble eacli other, 

 showing that here the females have been modified; whereas 

 in those cases where the males are the more ornate it is 

 these which have been modified, the females remaining 

 closely alike. 



In England we have some analogous cases, though not 

 so marked. The females alone of two species of Theola 

 have a bright-purple or orange patch on their fore-wings. 

 In Hipparchia the sexes do not differ much; but it is the 

 female of H. janira which has a conspicuous light-brown 

 patch on her wings; and the females of some of the other 

 species are brighter colored than their males. Again, the 

 females of Colias deusa and hyale have "orange or yellow 

 spots on the black marginal border, represented in the males 

 only by thin streaks"; and in Pieris it is the females which 

 "are ornamented with black spots on the fore-wings, and 

 these are only partially present in the males." Now, the 

 males of many butterflies are known to support the females 

 during their marriage flight; but in the species just named 

 it is the females which support the males ; so that the part 

 which the two sexes" play is reversed, as is their relative 

 beauty. Throughout the animal kingdom the males com- 

 monly take the more active share in wooing, and their 

 beauty seems to have been increased by the females having 

 accepted the more attractive individuals; but with these 

 butterflies the females take the more active part in the final 

 marriage ceremony, so that we may suppose that they like- 

 wise do so in the wooing; and in this case we can under- 

 stand how it is that they have been rendered the more 

 beautiful. Mr. Meldola, from whom the foregoing state- 

 ments have been taken, says in conclusion: "Though I am 

 not convinced of the action of sexual selection in producing 

 the colors of insects, it cannot be denied that these facts are 

 strikingly corroborative of Mr. Darwin's views. " " 



'' "Nature," April 27, 1871, p. 508. Mr. Meldola quotes Donzel, in "Soc. 

 Ent. de Prance," 1837, p. 77. on. the flight of butteriiies while pairing. See also 

 Mr. Gr. Eraser, in "Nature," April 20, 1871, p. 489, on the sexual difierence* 

 of several British butterflies. 



