5U ANIMAL COLORATION. 



Acronycta menyanthidis fed on heath produces light specimens. 

 Hyberitia defoliata fed on birch produces beautifully marked specimens : 

 fed on elm produces dull-coloured specimens, almost 



without markings. 

 Noctuaf estiva fed on thorn gives specimens of a rich red colour and well 



marked : 



,, ,, fed upon grass, light yellowish, rarely well-marked specimens. 



Abraxas yrossulariata, fed upon red currant ; light specimens : 

 fed upon blackthorn ; darker specimens : 



fed upon bullace ; darker still, the white sometimes 



becoming yellow. 



Not only does the nature of the food, as shown in the above 

 instances, produce colour variations, but the quantity may 

 have an important effect in the same direction. Mr. Ramsay 

 Cox,* in relation to this matter, writes as follows : " We 

 captured in the New Forest a number of half-grown larva? of 

 Vanessa lo (the Peacock butterfly), which were carefully fed 

 for a few days ; but, owing to my boy's neglect and to my 

 being busy with the net, they were left several days without 

 food ; all dead leaves and stalks had been devoured. They 

 were a very long time changing, and many fastened themselves 

 to the bottom of the cage, as if too weak to spin upon the 

 top or sides, in the ordinary manner. Very few died, either 

 in the larval or pupal state. Nearly all the imagos were, of 

 course, rather small; they varied much in the intensity of their 

 colouring, and two specimens are very singularly marked. In 

 one the yellow costal spot is only represented by a very small 

 white mark. There is scarcely any yellow in the ocellus, a large 

 part of which is filled up with black; the usual chocolate patch 

 in it is also black. The chocolate ground-colour is also darker 

 than usual. In the hind wing the ocellus contains only two 

 small, round, violet spots. The other specimen is similarly 

 marked, except in the hind wings, in which there is no ocellus 



* Entomologist, vol. ix., p. 58. 



