Darwin's Theory of Sexual Selection 185 
colors of butterflies, and of some few moths, have commonly 
been acquired for the sake of protection. We have seen 
that their colors and elegant patterns are arranged and ex- 
hibited as if for display. Hence I am led to believe that the 
females prefer or are most excited by the more brilliant 
males ; for on any other supposition the males would, as far 
as we can see, be ornamented to no purpose. We know that 
ants and certain lamellicorn beetles are capable of feeling 
an attachment for each other, and that ants recognize their 
fellows after an interval of several months. Hence there is 
no abstract improbability in the Lepidoptera, which probably 
stand nearly or quite as high in the scale as these insects, 
having sufficient mental capacity to admire bright colors. 
They certainly discover flowers by color.” 
So far as the evidence of ants having an attachment for 
each other is concerned, we may eliminate this part of the 
argument, since the evidence on which the statement is based 
is now regarded as only showing that ants recognize each 
other by their sense of smell, which resides in the anten- 
nz. Hence the so-called fondling means only that the 
ants are trying by smell to determine the odor of the other 
individual. 
Darwin points out a number of cases in which the females 
are more brightly colored than the males, and for such cases 
he reverses the process of selection, supposing that the males 
have been discriminating, and have not “gladly accepted any 
female.” No explanation is offered to account for this 
reversal of instinct, in fact, no evidence to show that such a 
reversal really exists. Darwin points out that in most cases 
the male insect carries the female during the period of union, 
while in two species of butterflies, Coldas edusa and hyale, the 
females carry the males, and the females are here the more 
highly colored. He suggests that since in this case “the 
females take the more active part in the final marriage cere- 
mony, so we may suppose that they likewise do so in the 
