SEXUAL SELECTION 429 



the type to wkicli the species belongs; and as it is the male 

 ■which searches eagerly for the female, we must suppose that 

 the females habitually or occasionally prefer the more beau- 

 tiful males, and that these have thus acquired their beauty. 

 That the females in most or all the orders would have the 

 power of rejecting any particular male, is probable from 

 the many singular contrivances possessed by the males, 

 such as great jaws, adhesive cushions, spines, elongated 

 legs, etc., for seizing the female; for these contrivances 

 show that there is some difficulty in the act, so that her 

 concurrence would seem necessary. Judging from what 

 we know of the perceptive powers and affections of vari- 

 ous insects, there is no antecedent improbability in sexual 

 selection having come largely into play; but we have as yet 

 no direct evidence on this head, and some facts are opposed 

 to the belief. Nevertheless, when we see many males pur- 

 suing the same female, we can hardly believe that the pair- 

 ing is left to blind chance — that the female exerts no choice, 

 and is not influenced by the gorgeous colors or other orna- 

 ments with which the male is decorated. 



If we admit that the females of the Homoptera and 

 Orthoptera appreciate the musical tones of their male part- 

 ners, and that the various instruments have been perfected 

 through sexual selection, there is little improbability in the 

 females of other insects appreciating beauty in form or color, 

 and consequently in such characters having been thus gained 

 by the males. But from the circumstance of color being so 

 variable, and from its having been so often modified for the 

 sake of protection, it is difficult to decide in how large a pro- 

 portion of cases sexual selection has played a part. This is 

 more especially difficult in those Orders, such as Orthoptera, 

 Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera, in which the two sexes rarely 

 differ much in color; for we are then left to mere analogy. 

 With the Coleoptera, however, as before remarked, it is in 

 the great Lamellicorn group, placed by some authors at the 

 head of the Order, and in which we sometimes see a mutual 

 attachment between the sexes, that we find the males of some 



