[32] Considering that the true _Vanessa Atalanta_, of more northern latitudes, _does_ occasionally occur around Funchal, it may be reasonably contended that the fact of its coexistence (on the same spot) with the _V. Callirhoe_ is strong presumptive proof that the latter is a true species, and no climatal or insular modification of the former. And so, judging from a distance, and without local evidence to explain this phaenomenon, I should have concluded myself: nevertheless, recollecting how easy of transport the larvae and pupae of Lepidoptera necessarily are (of which we have the plainest assurance in the almost certain introduction of the _Pontia Brassicae_, _Sphinx Convolvuli_, _Acherontia Atropos_, &c. into those islands), especially in a region which for more than a century has been receiving a constant supply of vegetables and ornamental plants from western Europe; I am induced to believe that the appearance of the _Atalanta_ is a comparatively recent one, whilst that of the _Callirhoe_ (which, unlike the typical _Red Admiral_, has naturalized itself in nearly all portions of the group) must be referred to the remote period when migrations over a long-lost continuous land were in regular operation. The _slowness_ of the change, in external aspect, which the isolation of insects from geological causes would seem to bring about (and which follows, as a corollary, if the above conclusion be true), I propose to discuss in a subsequent chapter of this work. [33] Insecta Maderensia, p. 260. [34] Insecta Maderensia, pp. 268, 269. [35] Religion of Nature Delineated, p. 99. [36] Although the result of a primary (or creative) adjustment to special circumstances, rather than of a secondary adaptation, brought about by a self-modifying capability; we may just call attention to the fact, that most of the blind insects, whether associates within the nests of ants, or natives of subterranean caverns, have either their palpi _or_ antennae anomalously developed,--as though, partially (although how, and in what degree, we cannot possibly ascertain), to make amends for the inconvenience which a total want of sight must, necessarily entail. [37] This is certainly rendered _probable_, however, from the fact that a large proportion of these apterous species are members of _genera_ which are usually winged,--such as _Tarus_, _Loricera_, _Calathus_, _Olisthopus_, _Argutor_, _Trechus_, _Hydrobius_, _Ephistemus_, _Syncalypta_, _Phloe ophagus_, _Tychius_, _Longitarsus_, _Chrysomela_, _Scymnus_, _Corylophus_, _Helops_, and _Othius_,--whilst the knowledge that, out of twenty-nine genera which I believe to be endemic in those islands, six only are winged (the remaining twenty-three being apterous), will not tend to diminish the probability that there is something peculiar in the action of Madeiran influences generally on the alary system of the insect tribes.