To Illustrate These
Phenomena, Let Us Suppose A Roaming Englishman In Some Remote Island
To Have Two Wives - One A
Black-haired/ red-skinned Indian, the other a
woolly-headed/ sooty-skinned negress; and that instead of the
children being
Mulattoes of brown or dusky tints, mingling the
characteristics of each parent in varying degrees, all the boys
should be as fair-skinned and blue-eyed as their father, while
the girls should altogether resemble their mothers. This would be
thought strange enough, but the case of these butterflies is yet
more extraordinary, for each mother is capable not only of
producing male offspring like the father, and female like
herself, but also other females like her fellow wife, and
altogether differing from herself!
The other species to which I have to direct attention is the
Kallima paralekta, a butterfly of the same family group as our
Purple Emperor, and of about the same size or larger. Its upper
surface is of a rich purple, variously tinged with ash colour,
and across the forewings there is a broad bar of deep orange, so
that when on the wing it is very conspicuous. This species was
not uncommon in dry woods and thickets, and I often endeavoured
to capture it without success, for after flying a short distance
it would enter a bush among dry or dead leaves, and however
carefully I crept up to the spot I could never discover it until
it would suddenly start out again and then disappear in a similar
place.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 181 of 419
Words from 49212 to 49466
of 114260
