Chap. XI. 
BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 
393 
cabbage-butterflies (Pieris), or the great swallow-tail 
Papilio which haunts the open fens — for these butter- 
flies are thus rendered visible to every living creature. 
With these species both sexes are alike ; but in the 
common brimstone butterfly ( Gonepteryx rhamni), the 
male is of an intense yellow, whilst the female is much 
paler; and in the orange-tip ( Anthocharis cardamines ) 
the males alone have the bright orange tips to their 
wings. In these cases the males and females are 
equally conspicuous, and it is not credible that their 
difference in colour stands in any relation to ordinary 
protection. Nevertheless it is possible that the con- 
spicuous colours of many species may be in an indirect 
manner beneficial, as will hereafter be explained, by 
leading their enemies at once to recognise them as 
unpalatable. Even in this case it does not certainly 
follow that their bright colours and beautiful patterns 
were acquired for this special purpose. In some other 
remarkable cases, beauty has been gained for the sake 
of protection, through the imitation of other beautiful 
species, which inhabit the same district and enjoy an 
immunity from attack by being in some way offensive 
to their enemies. 
The female of our orange-tip buttterfly, above re- 
ferred to, and of an American species {Anth. genutia ) 
probably shew us, as Mr. Walsh has remarked to me, 
the primordial colours of the parent - species of the 
genus ; for both sexes of four or five widely-distributed 
species are coloured in nearly the same manner. We 
may infer here, as in several previous cases, that it is 
the males of Anth. cardamines and genutia which have 
departed from the usual type of colouring of their genus. 
In the Anth . sara from California, the orange-tips have 
become partially developed in the female ; for her wings, 
are tipped with reddish-orange, but paler than in the 
