Return to darwin.txt CVS log

Up to [Research Unix] / researchv10dc / cmd / icon / ipl / data

researchv10 Dan Cross

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

This archive runs on limited infrastructure. Preserving old code on modern bandwidth. Automated agents are requested to crawl responsibly.