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The Descent of Man

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nion appears to be that the sexes are nearly<br />

equal, but in Italy, as I hear from Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Canestrini,<br />

many breeders are convinced that the<br />

females are produced in excess. This same naturalist,<br />

however, informs me, that in the two<br />

yearly broods <strong>of</strong> the Ailanthus silk-moth (Bombyx<br />

cynthia), the males greatly preponderate in<br />

the first, whilst in the second the two sexes are<br />

nearly equal, or the females rather in excess.<br />

In regard to Butterflies in a state <strong>of</strong> nature, several<br />

observers have been much struck by the<br />

apparently enormous preponderance <strong>of</strong> the<br />

males. (74. Leuckart quotes Meinecke (Wagner,<br />

'Handworterbuch der Phys.' B. iv. 1853, s. 775)<br />

that the males <strong>of</strong> Butterflies are three or four<br />

times as numerous as the females.) Thus Mr.<br />

Bates (75. '<strong>The</strong> Naturalist on the Amazons,' vol.<br />

ii. 1863, pp. 228, 347.), in speaking <strong>of</strong> several<br />

species, about a hundred in number, which<br />

inhabit the upper Amazons, says that the males<br />

are much more numerous than the females,

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