360 
SEXUAL SELECTION. 
Part II. 
same object gained by the most diversified means; this 
being due to the whole organisation undergoing in 
the course of ages multifarious changes; and as part 
after part varies, different variations are taken advantage 
of for the same general purpose. The diversification of 
the means for producing sound in the three families 
of the Orthoptera and in the Homoptera, impresses the 
mind with the high importance of these structures to 
the males, for the sake of calling or alluring the females. 
We need feel no surprise at the amount of modification 
which the Orthoptera have undergone in this respect, as 
we now know, from Dr. Scudder’s remarkable discovery , 42 
that there has been more than ample time. This 
naturalist has lately found a fossil insect in the Devonian 
formation of New Brunswick, which is furnished with 
“ the well-known tympanum or stridulating apparatus 
“ of the male Locustidse.” This insect, though in most 
respects related to the Neuroptera, appears to connect, 
as is so often the case with very ancient forms, the 
two Orders of the Neuroptera and Orthoptera which are 
now generally ranked as quite distinct. 
I have but little more to say on the Orthoptera. 
Some of the species are very pugnacious: when two 
male field-crickets (Gryllm camjpestris) are confined 
together, they fight till one kills the other ; and the 
species of Mantis are described as manoeuvring with 
their sword-like front-limbs, like hussars with their 
sabres. The Chinese keep these insects in little bamboo 
cages and match them like game-cocks . 43 With respect 
to colour, some exotic locusts are beautifully orna- 
mented ; the posterior wings being marked with red, 
42 ‘ Transact. Ent. $oc.’ 3rd series, vol. ii. (‘ Journal of Proceedings, 
p. 117.) 
43 Westwood, ‘Modern Class, of Insects/ vol. i. p. 427; for crickets, 
p. 445. 
