1896.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 267 



ABERRANT FORM OF MELIT/EA COLON Edwards. 

 By B. L. CUNNINGHAM, Fort Klamath, Oregon. 



Expanse 50 mm.; antennae 9 mm., yellow. Fore wing, upper- 

 side, black; a row of red spots cross the wing on the border as 

 in the type of this species; one large yellow tinged white spot at 

 end of cell and one smaller in the middle of cell; also a row of 

 whitish yellow spots inside border row. Hind wing, upperside, 

 all black, except a row of red spots along the edge. Front wing, 

 lowerside, ground color red; a row of six black crescents cross- 

 ing wing 4 mm. from the edge. In the central cell the cross-lines 

 have been wonderfully changed. On the right wing, commencing 

 at the left, these lines have been changed to letters, as follows: 

 I H S. These letters are coal-black and show up distinctly on 

 the red " back ground." On left wing these letters are reversed, 

 but are just as distinct. We are all familiar with the Latin words, 

 "Jesus Hominum Salvator'' (Jesus, the Savior of Men), and the 

 abbreviation of these words, I. H. S., appearing on the wing of 

 a butterfly is to me a wonderful thing, and worthy of note. 



Hind wing, lowerside, black; a row of red spots along border, 

 followed inside by a black band, then another row of red spots, 

 followed in turn by another wider band of black; inside of this 

 the red patch of colon proper has been broken into spots sur- 

 rounding four black spots. The base of the wing is black; vein- 

 ing all black. 



It will be seen from this that all the white on the lowerside has 

 been turned to black, and also that it has turned to black on the 

 upperside of hind wing, and that the upperside of the front wing 

 has lost most of its red spots and some of its white ones. It is 

 a very unique specimen, and is now in the museum at Tring, 

 England where the gentleman, to whom I sold it, placed it for 

 safe keeping. It was captured at an altitude of 4300 feet, a frw 

 miles from Fort Klamath, Oregon, in July, 1893; at that time 

 there were a few snow banks among the small pines where there 

 was little or no sunshine; possibly the pupa from which this fly 

 hatched was under one of these snow banks, and the color- 

 changed by the action of the cold. The color of the antenna i> 

 also changed from normally red or brown to yellow. 



I have taken three aberrant Mclitcca, one colon, one rubicunda 

 and one of which I do not know the name. I have also taken 

 two aberrant Argynnis, both erinna, one of which was described 

 by Prof. Owen in the NEWS (vol. iv, p. 246), but none of which 

 were so curious as this colon, which is a S . 



