■HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



177 



flies, whose prodigiously dusty wings ornamented 

 with large spots of an intense black at once com- 

 manded attention. The friend was forthwith inter- 

 rogated, and he then stated that they were the 

 progeny of caterpillars gathered during the late 

 autumn, and that they had had their development 

 retarded by being kept in an icehouse. 



So much being established, it would be interesting 

 to look abroad on the wing patterns of butterflies 

 that gladden the eye of man, and furnished with this 

 clue, proceed to unravel the warp and woof of love- 

 liness ; but here, alas ! the writer's command of his 

 subject is necessarily circumscribed. If we move 

 on to the recent subdivision of the genus, recent we 

 believe in nature as on the page of synonyme ; we at 

 least find that black painted-ladies ( l^. cardiii) with 

 rows of dark or white marginal spots occur from time 

 to time in this country ; one such variety was figured 

 in 1872, to my certain knowledge, and two were 

 figured in 1879. And since these years also mark 

 memorable periods of butterfly migration to our 



wise in other groups as the Geometers and Pyralidina, 

 where they have long been known as the half- line, 

 inner line, elbowed line, and subterminal line of tech- 

 nical lore. Then as regards time. How far back the 

 present mutations in the patterns on the wings of 

 butterflies and moths can be traced, the imperfect 

 preservation of fossil kinds forbids to say. To date it 

 from the abnormal meteorological conditions of the 

 last glacial period would be erroneous, as we find 

 existing even in tertiary ages butterflies and moths 

 with the identical design of spots and lines we have 

 been considering. As a passing illustration of this 

 important point, I venture to give above a restoration 

 of a fossil butterfly found in the gypsum rocks of Aix 

 in Provence, preserved in the cabinet of the Count 

 de Saporta, together with a little moth from the same 

 strata I myself sketched in an idle hour at the 

 Marseilles Museum. The butterfly, although its 

 markings resemble somewhat those of the tortoise- 

 shell, is attributed to the family of the Satyrides j the 

 moth is perhaps a bombyx, with the ordinary four 



Fig. 105. — Restoration of a Tertiary 

 Bombyx ? (thorax restored). Aix. 



Fig. 104. — Restoration of NeoHitopis sepuUa, after Dr. Scudder. Aix. 



shores, we may reasonably hope with a more 

 perfect record of varieties captured to be eventually 

 in a position to connect this phenomenon with 

 meteorological conditions, and to establish the 

 seasonal character of the transformation. 



Passing from the^robust Vanessse to the slender 

 branch of the nearly allied Fritillaries, we find in 

 the silver spotted group, Selene and Euphrosyne, 

 on North German areas running to sports that have 

 black bands on the fore wings from the coalescing of 

 the wing specks ; and in their sister genus similar 

 aberrations have been noticed in this country, and 

 are figured by Newman. Many butterflies, it is 

 unnecessary to say, have naturally four black lines 

 plainly marked on their wings, sometimes sup- 

 plemented by subordinate ones ; and on bringing 

 this matter last year under the observation of the 

 Entomological Society, the remark was made by the 

 president in the chair, Mr. Stainton : Why, these 

 bands you have shown are those of the Noctuina. And 

 not alone are they found in the night moths, but like- 



bands filled in with dark and light as may be observed 

 in recent examples. 



Besides conferring the insignia of the black ribbon, 

 altitude as it would seem has some tendency to dwarf 

 the small tortoiseshell. Isolation, however, in the 

 island of the tailless cats has accomplished this more 

 thoroughly, and Edward Newman tells us Mr. Birchall 

 sent him quite a series of Liliputians from Manx 

 localities. Slight shades in tinting are likewise ob- 

 served in this butterfly, and singular to say, northern, 

 Alpine, and southern examples are severally found 

 to have a more fiery or redder colour ; pointing as 

 one might infer to the variation of the species on the 

 confines of possible existence. But as it is yet possi- 

 ble some of these changes may be after all dependent 

 on diet, I would here call the attention of naturalists 

 residing in the country to the exceedingly interesting 

 question of dwarfs and erratic colourings arising 

 from an insufficient, or an unnatural food. The 

 results obtained by a system of artificial rearing 

 founded upon such data have been scarcely hitherto 



