THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 87 



same way as Nokomis is the form (i. e. of Cybele) of the dry central 

 plateau of the continent." He had already said that Cybele and Aphro- 

 dite, and several others, were all one species, and now gets into the same 

 corral Leto, Nokomis and Nitocris, which last, he says, is nothing but a 

 form of Nokomis. And he quotes the wise remarks of his friend and 

 counsellor, Strecker, with approval : " I have always contended that 

 Nokomis was a pale abnormal form of Cybele, of which we have so many 

 other instances in other species, (I should like to see a statement of these 

 other instances !) from the dry salt regions of Utah and Arizona," p. 568. 

 Pity that Mr. Darwin had not lighted on that explanation of the origin of 

 species ! The dry salt air changes the form of a species, changes its 

 coloration throughout, changes the form of the silver spots, enlarges or 

 decreases their number, lines the spots with heavy bars of black on 

 both anterior and posterior sides. Thus a Nokomis is manufactured 

 out of a Cybele I Leto is as unlike Cybele in shape, in the silver spots, 

 their size and number, and in the colour of both sexes, as it is unlike Zere7ie. 

 Nokomis female, on the upper side, is of the same pattern as female 

 Dia?ia, the spots being yellow, which in Diana are blue. Leto female, 

 in place of the extra-discal oblong spots on hind wings, seen in the other 

 two species, has a solid yellow band. To me it spems absurd to the last 

 degree to be talking about the identity or even the nearness of the three 

 species to each other. I happen to have bred Leto from egg to imago, 

 and the larva has striking differences from that of Cybele. And how any 

 one can look at the plates of Nokotiiis and Nitocris, and call them forms 

 of one species, is past my understanding. 



A. Semiramis " to my eye is nothing more than a form of Coronis, in 

 which the black markings of the upper side have become paler and more 

 reduced, as might be expected from the arid character of the country 

 where it is found. It has been taken by Mr. Wright in the mountains 

 separating the San Bernardino Valley from the Mohave Desert, and was 

 not out when I visited these mountains in May, 1888." Why might it 

 have been expected ? That strikes me as on a par with the reason given 

 for transformation of species in Utah, the dry salt air ; and in Oregon, 

 the damp climate. As it happens, the region where Semiramis is found 

 is not on the desert side of the mountains, and Mr. Wright, in answer to 

 my inquiry, denies the arid character, and says that no mountains are dry 



