Abstract
NATURALISTS have long been familiar with the fact that the two sexes of certain species of lepidoptera often differed from each other in colour and marking, and sometimes in form and size to a very considerable extent. For this phenomenon the convenient term “Antigeny” has been proposed by Mr. S. H. Scudder.1 In accordance with Darwin's theory of sexual selection we find that when the sexes of a butterfly differ to any marked extent in colour, it is generally the male which is the more gaudily coloured, although there are certain genera in which the reverse obtains; but, as I pointed out in NATURE (vol. iii. p. 508), there is reason to believe that in these exceptional cases the males may be the selecting sex. Mr. Charles Darwin having recently called my attention to a paper on this subject in Kosmos,1 by that most philosophical entomologist, Fritz Müller, I have thought that an abstract might interest readers of NATURE.
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References
Proc. Amer. Acad., xii, 150.
"Epicalia acontius. Ein ungleiches Ehepaar", Kosmes, January, 1879, p. 285.
"Descent of Man". i, 388.
"Generelle Morphologic", 1866, ii. 244.
Kosmos, ii. 42
The term "reciprocal sexual selection" might be advantageously applied to such ciasses of cases.-R. M.
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MELDOLA, R. Butterflies with Dissimilar Sexes . Nature 19, 586–588 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019586b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019586b0