i8 94 .l 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



red in the female. The elytra of the male Apion laevigatum are black, 

 those of the female deep violet ; those of Apion sorbi are brassy black 

 in the male, and greenish blue in the female. In some of the Harpali, 

 the male is of a shining blue, green, or blue black, while the female is 

 dull black. The male of Donacia amnis is black with a violet reflection, 

 the female is bronze or brassy. The male of Scymnus discoideus has 

 a reddish yellow head and thorax ; the female is entirely black. The 

 male of Cryptocephalus bilineatus has a yellow head, with a black line 

 down the middle ; the female has a black head, with two yellow 

 spots between the eye. The male of Apion difforme has the 

 antennae entirely yellow brown ; the female has the antennae entirely 

 black. The male of Apoderus coryli has a black head ; the female 

 a red head. 



II. — Disparity in Size. 



The butterflies exhibit a certain amount of disparity in the magnitude 

 of the sexes, and the females have the advantage ; but it is only 

 necessary to arrange a series of any species by the size of the indi- 

 viduals, and it will become very evident to those who can readily 

 distinguish the sexes that the thirty smaller individuals are by no 

 means invariably males, nor the thirty large ones females, but the 

 males and females alternate with something approaching to regularity. 

 The largest and most familiar groups of moths are the Sphinges, the 

 Bombyces, the Noctuae, and the Geometrae. 



Beginning with the Bombyces, we find the males larger in Ino, 

 Setina, Euchelia, Euthemonia, and Nemeophila ; the females in 

 Hepialus, Endromis, Saturnia, Lasiocampa, Odonestis, Bombyx, Dasy- 

 chira, and Liparis ; the sexes alike in Lithosia, Callimorpha, Arctia, 

 Spilosoma, Cerura, and Notodonta. In the Noctuae the males are 

 larger in Acosmetia, Hydrilla, Stilbia, and Miana arcuosa; on the other 

 hand the females of Nonagria typhae and lutosa have that advantage, 

 and yet these three last are surrounded by closely allied species in 

 which no such difference obtains. In the Geometrae the males are 

 larger in Scodiona, Selidosema, Acidalia, Oporabia, Eubolia cervinata, 

 Mesotype lineolata, and Larentia multistrigaria ; but these are the 

 exceptions ; in an overwhelming majority there is no disparity in size, 

 and the same may be said of all the groups of the Lepidoptera. In the 

 Pyralides the males are the larger in Cledeobia, Pyrausta, Platytes, 

 and Scopula alpinalis ; the females are the larger in Cataclysta, Hydro- 

 campa, Schcenobius, and Aphomia. In the Tortrices the males are 

 the larger in Peronea aspersana, Peronea mixtana, and Sphaloptera 

 ictericana, the females are the larger in Tortrix and Olindia. In the 

 Tineae, the males are the larger in Epigraphia, Adela, and Pleurota ; 

 the females are the larger in Hyponomenta, Orthotelia, and Depressaria. 



