39 
family, and retained by those species to whom it was either beneficial 
or to whom, at all events, it was not suttlciently injurious to he acted on 
by natural selection. That the latter supposition is the most likely 
one, I think all will admit, because it is an extremely difficult thing 
to believe that so many instances of identical or nearly identical color¬ 
ation would occur in such widely separated species of the same family 
without some fundamental hereditary connection between the insects 
displaying it, however much these species may have subsequently 
diverged from one another in other ways. Another point strongly 
corroborative of the hereditary character of this coloration lies in the 
fact that several species, which are normally Idack, when taken in an 
immature state show this very alternate coloration we are enquiring 
into. Take, for instance, (Jiiedins inrudiiniiiiii-'!, which is a very com¬ 
mon species, and normally of a deep black colour all over, even to the 
legs and anteniiie, but 1 have taken an immature specimen in Hadley 
Woods, which shows the alternate colour scheme in just the same way 
as seen in the mature specimens of the species vhich are alternately 
coloured. 1 have also a specimen in the group Philonthns, namely 
tnixsiiliis, Avhich I exhibit from the Plumstead Marshes, where the 
alternate coloration is shown (piite as markedly as in the immature 
(Jiicdiiis iiies<i)ii(‘li)iits, ]-)reviously mentioned. 1 have also an im¬ 
mature Uoiiicdutci fiint/i, and Mr. Newbery has an immature 
Iota anpiata, showing just the same thing, and these instances 
are from genera which have no members exhibiting the alternate 
coloration normally. Again, I have O.nijioda iimhrata ahow'mg the 
same alternate coloration, but this is not perhaps so wonderful seeing 
that it is a very close relation to < Kvnpoda altndianx. Now it seems to me 
impossible to explain these remarkable facts in any other way than by 
supposing it to be a character inherited l)y the family from some com¬ 
mon ancestor and modified in most of the present species to suit their 
environment, but which is still retained by se^eral isolated species 
scattered throughout the family, and which is still present in a innnber 
of species which have subsequently become more highly specialised to 
suit their conditions of existence, as shown when taken in an immature 
state. . • .1 • 
One other point I should like to bring to your notice on this 
most interesting matter is that within the limits of one single genus, 
the (Kri/poda, we have almost step by step the very manner in which 
this coloration has been arrived at. It is, I believe, an almost 
universal case with our Ooleoptera that on emergence from the pupa 
the colour of the perfect insect is very pale, and that the darkening 
of the colour and the appearance of the pattern follow after the 
emergence from the pupa. I have not had much expeiience this ^^ay 
myself, but in all the cases that have come under my notice this has 
been so, as in Adalia hiinnirtata and others of this group. In some of 
our StaphnUnidae I have met with jiale specimens, and amongst the 
water beetles I have had a pupa of llphuo^ atrr which was very pale. 
The pupie of some of our wood-boring beetles are also very pale. I 
have had Vlmlera fii^ca in an immature state nearly white, and 1 
think we shall be quite safe in assuming this statement as very 
<reneral. at all events, with our indigenous Staphulinidae. 
° Acting on this assumption, let us look at the genus O.rppoda, and 
take it for granted that on emergence from the pupa they are pale, and 
