184 THE WOKLD OF LIFE 



A new Alignment against Female Choice 



Here again we find another, and I think a very conclusive 

 argument against female choice having had any part in the 

 production of beautiful and varied colours in the males of 

 butterflies, or probably of any insects, since it is clear that 

 the attraction is through another sense than that of sight, and 

 all that vision can do in this direction is to enable the in- 

 \ sect to recognise, perhaps at a greater distance, the individuals 

 which are thus attractive. There is much evidence to support 

 this view. H. Miiller, in his Fertilisation of Flowers, states 

 that odour is pre-eminent in attracting insects to flowers, and, 

 next to that, general conspicuousness rather than any special 

 colour or form. And, by his detailed accounts of insects 

 visiting flowers, we find that almost all the commoner butter- 

 flies visit a great variety of honey-bearing flowers W'ithout 

 much regard to colour. Thus Argynnis papliia visited flowers 

 of four different natural orders, whose flowers w^ere white or 

 pale red ; the large cabbage butterflies visited seven different 

 orders, including red, white, purple, yellow, or blue flowers; 

 the small tortoise-shell visited an even greater range of flowers 

 and colours, so that we have no reason to impute to these in- 

 sects anything more than the power to recognise, after experi- 

 ence, any conspicuous flowers that produce pleasant odours 

 and, usually, accessible honey. 



A consideration of the whole evidence as to the purpose 

 served by the excessively varied and brilliant coloration of but- 

 tei^ies leads us to the conclusion that its presence is due to 

 general laws of colour-development — some of which will be 

 discussed in later chapters — whose action is only checked 

 when such development becomes injurious. In the case of 

 butterflies, the comparatively short period that elapses between 

 the emergence of the female from the chrysalis and the dep- 

 osition of her eggs, and the still shorter period needed for the 

 special functions of the more brilliantly coloured male to- 

 gether wdth his power of irregular but rapid flight, render it 



