But as soon as the conditions that obtain among Lepidoptera are
also taken into consideration we recognize the insufficiency of the
interpretation suggested, for among butterflies we have precisely the
same phenomenon--sharp limitation of the protective colouring to the
parts visible in the resting position, a fact which, in the case of
the said butterflies, admits of no other interpretation than that of
natural selection. Let us therefore see if we cannot, in the case of
_Tropidoderus_, arrive at some better understanding of the phenomenon
than that implied in the theory of direct light-influence. Obviously,
the yellow parts of the animal do not require to be green, since they
are not visible in the sitting position, and the locust in flight could
not by any device be made invisible. It therefore only remains to be
explained why the yellow parts are not colourless, and why they are
not also green. We cannot at present answer with any confidence; it is
possible that the colouring matter which causes the green only becomes
green under the influence of direct sunlight, and otherwise remains
yellow; it is possible, too, that, as in Lepidoptera (see Fig. 9), the
full protective colour is only developed by natural selection in the
places which are visible in the sitting position, and that the covered
parts take on any indifferent colour, which might be readily afforded
by the metabolism of the insect. But this much is certain, that the
covered parts would be green, if that were advantageous to the survival
of the species, just as the under surface of the wings of some diurnal
butterflies is green. Had it been required, the green colour would have
resulted in the course of natural selection, just as it has resulted
in the most different parts of the most diverse insects, even in those
whose development takes place entirely removed from the influence of
light. Therein lies the difference between our interpretation and that
of Brunner von Wattenwyl: without natural selection no explanation of
this case is possible.
[Illustration: FIG. 12. _Notodonta camelina_, after Rösel. _A_, in
flight. _B_, at rest.]
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