Tropical nature, and other essaysWallace, Alfred Russel
History
Tropical nature, and other essays
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Ecology -- Tropics; Natural history -- Tropics; Tropics
_Sexual Colours._--The third class comprises all cases in which the
colours of the two sexes differ. This difference is very general,
and varies greatly in amount, from a slight divergence of tint up
to a radical change of coloration. Differences of this kind are
found among all classes of animals in which the sexes are separated,
but they are much more frequent in some groups than in others. In
mammalia, reptiles, and fishes, they are comparatively rare, and
not great in amount, whereas among birds they are very frequent
and very largely developed. So among insects, they are abundant
in butterflies, while they are comparatively uncommon in beetles,
wasps, and hemiptera.
The phenomena of sexual variations of colour, as well as of colour
generally, are wonderfully similar in the two analogous yet totally
unrelated groups of birds and butterflies; and as they both offer
ample materials, we shall confine our study of the subject chiefly
to them. The most common case of difference of colour between the
sexes, is for the male to have the same general hue as the females,
but deeper and more intensified; as in many thrushes, finches,
and hawks; and among butterflies in the majority of our British
species. In cases where the male is smaller the intensification of
colour is especially well pronounced; as in many of the hawks and
falcons, and in most butterflies and moths in which the coloration
does not materially differ. In another extensive series we have spots
or patches of vivid colour in the male, which are represented in
the female by far less brilliant tints or are altogether wanting;
as exemplified in the gold-crest warbler, the green woodpecker,
and most of the orange-tip butterflies (_Anthocharis_). Proceeding
with our survey, we find greater and greater differences of colour
in the sexes, till we arrive at such extreme cases as some of the
pheasants, the chatterers, tanagers, and birds-of-paradise, in
which the male is adorned with the most gorgeous and vivid colours,
while the female is usually dull brown, or olive green, and often
shows no approximation whatever to the varied tints of her partner.
Similar phenomena occur among butterflies; and in both these groups
there are also a considerable number of cases in which both sexes
are highly coloured in a different way. Thus many woodpeckers have
the head in the male red, in the female yellow; while some parrots
have red spots in the male, replaced by blue in the female, as in
_Psittacula diopthalma_. In many South American Papilios, green
spots on the male are represented by red on the female; and in
several species of the genus _Epicalia_, orange bands in the male
are replaced by blue in the female, a similar change of colour to
that in the small parrot above referred to. For fuller details of
the varieties of sexual coloration we refer our readers to Mr.
Darwin’s _Descent of Man_, chapters x. to xviii., and to chapters
iii., iv. and vii. of my _Contributions to the Theory of Natural
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