41 



with from the effect of altitude, we have a right to 

 inquire (provided the types from which they are sup- 

 posed to have originally sprung obtain in the less- 

 elevated portions of the same country ), where are the 

 intermediate links ? Now I am not aware that any such 

 links have, in the examples above cited, ever been ob- 

 served ; whilst I can vouch that in at any rate many 

 districts where the quasi variety is found, the descend- 

 ants of its assumed progenitor do occur in the plains 

 beneath. I have remarked that the Cicindelidce often 

 become inconstant in colouring as they approach their 

 maximum of height above the sea; and I have but 

 little doubt that the C. fasciatopunctata*, Germ., from 

 Asia Minor and Turkey, is the C. sylvatica modified by 

 a long residence in elevated regions. And so it is with 

 the Chrysomela, many of which become, in the loftiest 

 altitudes to which they ascend (as I have noticed at the 

 head of the St. Gothard Pass of the Swiss Alps), subject 

 to unusual changes, both in lustre and hue. 



The above examples, although few and indiscriminately 

 selected, will serve to illustrate the principle which we 

 have been contending for, that climatal influences 

 generally, may (and in most instances do) tend to affect, 

 more or less directly, the outward contour of the insect 

 tribes. It will be remarked that, in the cases hitherto 



* I possess specimens of this insect captured on the summit of 

 Mount Olympus by my friend E. Armitage, Esq., who is also of 

 opinion that it may be but a mountain state of the C. sylvatica, 

 Linn. 



