The same general facts are found to prevail among insects. Although tropical insects present some of the most gorgeous coloration in the whole realm of nature, yet there are thousands and tens of thousands of species which are as dull coloured as any in our cloudy land. The extensive family of the carnivorous ground-beetles (Carabidae) attains its greatest brilliancy in the temperate zone; while by far the larger proportion of the great families of the longicorns and the weevils, are of obscure colours even in the tropics. In butterflies, there is undoubtedly a larger proportion of brilliant colour in the tropics; but if we compare families which are almost equally developed over the globe--as the Pieridae or whites and yellows, and the Satyridae or ringlets--we shall find no great disproportion in colour between those of temperate and tropical regions. The various facts which have now briefly been noticed are sufficient to indicate that the light and heat of the sun are not the direct causes of the colours of animals, although they may favour the production of colour when, as in tropical regions, the persistent high temperature favours the development of the maximum of life. We will now consider the next suggestion, that light reflected from surrounding coloured objects tends to produce corresponding colours in the animal world. This theory is founded on a number of very curious facts which prove, that such a change does sometimes occur and is directly dependent on the colours of surrounding objects; but these facts are comparatively rare and exceptional in their nature, and the same theory will certainly not apply to the infinitely varied colours of the higher animals, many of which are exposed to a constantly varying amount of light and colour during their active existence. A brief sketch of these dependent changes of colour may, however, be advantageously given here. _Variable Protective Colouring._ There are two distinct kinds of change of colour in animals due to the colouring of the environment. In one case the change is caused by reflex action set up by the animal _seeing_ the colour to be imitated, and the change produced can be altered or repeated as the animal changes its position. In the other case the change occurs but once, and is probably not due to any conscious or sense action, but to some direct influence on the surface tissues while the creature is undergoing a moult or change to the pupa form.