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The Descent of Man

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five males soon endeavoured to gain admittance.<br />

In Australia, Mr. Verreaux, having placed<br />

the female <strong>of</strong> a small Bombyx in a box in his<br />

pocket, was followed by a crowd <strong>of</strong> males, so<br />

that about 200 entered the house with him. (81.<br />

Blanchard, 'Metamorphoses, Moeurs des Insectes,'<br />

1868, pp. 225-226.)<br />

Mr. Doubleday has called my attention to M.<br />

Staudinger's (82. 'Lepidopteren-Doubletten<br />

Liste,' Berlin, No. x. 1866.) list <strong>of</strong> Lepidoptera,<br />

which gives the prices <strong>of</strong> the males and females<br />

<strong>of</strong> 300 species or well- marked varieties <strong>of</strong> butterflies<br />

(Rhopalocera). <strong>The</strong> prices for both sexes<br />

<strong>of</strong> the very common species are <strong>of</strong> course the<br />

same; but in 114 <strong>of</strong> the rarer species they differ;<br />

the males being in all cases, excepting one, the<br />

cheaper. On an average <strong>of</strong> the prices <strong>of</strong> the 113<br />

species, the price <strong>of</strong> the male to that <strong>of</strong> the female<br />

is as 100 to 149; and this apparently indicates<br />

that inversely the males exceed the females<br />

in the same proportion. About 2000 species

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