The Descent of Man

ve that the pairing is left to blind chance—that
the female exerts no choice, and is not influenced
by the gorgeous colours or other ornaments
with which the male is decorated.
If we admit that the females of the Homoptera
and Orthoptera appreciate the musical tones of
their male partners, and that the various instruments
have been perfected through sexual
selection, there is little improbability in the females
of other insects appreciating beauty in
form or colour, and consequently in such characters
having been thus gained by the males.
But from the circumstance of colour being so
variable, and from its having been so often modified
for the sake of protection, it is difficult to
decide in how large a proportion of cases
sexual selection has played a part. This is more
especially difficult in those Orders, such as
Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera, in
which the two sexes rarely differ much in colour;
for we are then left to mere analogy. With