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Annotation of researchv10dc/cmd/icon/ipl/data/darwin.txt, revision 1.1.1.1

1.1       root        1: Order, Coleoptera, (Beetles). Many beetles are colored so as
                      2: to resemble the surfaces which they habitually frequent, and they thus
                      3: escape detection by their enemies. Other species, for instance, diamond-beetles, are ornamented
                      4: with splendid colors, which are often arranged in stripes, spots, crosses,
                      5: and other elegant patterns.  Such colors can hardly serve directly as a protection, except in the case
                      6: of certain flower-feeding species; but they may serve as a warning or means of
                      7: recognition, on the same principle as the
                      8: phosphorescence of the glow-worm.
                      9: As with beetles the colors of the two sexes are generally alike, we have
                     10: no evidence that they have been gained through sexual selection; but this is
                     11: at least possible, for they may have been developed in one sex and then
                     12: transferred to the other; and this view is even in some degree probable
                     13: in those groups which possess other well-marked secondary
                     14: sexual characters. Blind beetles, which cannot, of course, behold each
                     15: other's beauty, never, as I hear from Mr. Waterhouse, Jr., exhibit bright
                     16: colors, though they often have polished coats; but the explanation of their
                     17: obscurity may be that they generally inhabit caves and other obscure stations.

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