be retained for a separate chapter.
ORDER, THYSANURA.
The members of this lowly organised order are wingless, dull-coloured,
minute insects, with ugly, almost misshapen heads and bodies. Their
sexes do not differ, but they are interesting as shewing us that the
males pay sedulous court to the females even low down in the animal
scale. Sir J. Lubbock (17. Transact. Linnean Soc. vol. xxvi. 1868, p.
296.) says: it is very amusing to see these little creatures
(Smynthurus luteus) coquetting together. The male, which is much
smaller than the female, runs round her, and they butt one another,
standing face to face and moving backward and forward like two playful
lambs. Then the female pretends to run away and the male runs after her
with a queer appearance of anger, gets in front and stands facing her
again; then she turns coyly round, but he, quicker and more active,
scuttles round too, and seems to whip her with his antennae; then for a
bit they stand face to face, play with their antennae, and seem to be
all in all to one another.
ORDER, DIPTERA (FLIES).
The sexes differ little in colour. The greatest difference, known to
Mr. F. Walker, is in the genus Bibio, in which the males are blackish
or quite black, and the females obscure brownish-orange. The genus
Elaphomyia, discovered by Mr. Wallace (18. The Malay Archipelago,
vol. ii. 1869, p. 313.) in New Guinea, is highly remarkable, as the
males are furnished with horns, of which the females are quite
destitute. The horns spring from beneath the eyes, and curiously
resemble those of a stag, being either branched or palmated. In one of
the species, they equal the whole body in length. They might be thought
to be adapted for fighting, but as in one species they are of a
beautiful pink colour, edged with black, with a pale central stripe,
and as these insects have altogether a very elegant appearance, it is
perhaps more probable that they serve as ornaments. That the males of
some Diptera fight together is certain; Prof. Westwood (19. Modern
Classification of Insects, vol. ii. 1840, p. 526.) has several times
seen this with the Tipulae. The males of other Diptera apparently try
to win the females by their music: H. Muller (20. Anwendung, etc.,
Verh. d. n. V. Jahrg. xxix. p. 80. Mayer, in American Naturalist,
310