I wonder whether you attribute the
odoriferous and sound-producing organs, when confined to the males, to
their greater vigour, etc.? I could say a good deal in opposition to
you, but my arguments would have no weight in your eyes, and I do not
intend to write for the public anything on this or any other difficult
subject. By the way, I doubt whether the term voluntary in relation to
sexual selection ought to be employed: when a man is fascinated by a
pretty girl it can hardly be called voluntary, and I suppose that female
animals are charmed or excited in nearly the same manner by the gaudy
males.
Three essays have been published lately in Germany which would interest
you: one by Weismann, who shows that the coloured stripes on the
caterpillars of Sphinx are beautifully protective: and birds were
frightened away from their feeding-place by a caterpillar with large
eye-like spots on the broad anterior segments of the body. Fritz Mueller
has well discussed the first steps of mimicry with butterflies, and
comes to nearly or quite the same conclusion as you, but supports it by
additional arguments.
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