Quail. — On Charagia virescens. 253 



sending to my valued correspondent Mr. Koland Illidge, of 

 Brisbane, in recognition of the very great assistance he has 

 from time to time rendered me in my studies of the Hepialid 

 group of Lepidoptera . 



The females vary as regards the dark markings. On the 

 green ground-colour there are outlined a series of spots which 

 in the male are white, also an outer series, and there are con- 

 stantly dark costal markings. Numerous pale-green elongate 

 markings are on the wing-surface generally, these likewise in 

 some specimens being outlined with dark-fuscous. A not un- 

 common form has the green ground-colour entirely replaced 

 with a dark colour which may be rather rusty in hue, with 

 the fine lines and markings green in colour but blurred in 

 outline, or, as in the figure, very distinctly approaching black, 

 with numerous transverse lines and spots clearly defined in 

 green. The latter form appears to be that described by 

 Butler" 1 as Charagia hectori. If it is permissible to use as a 

 varietal nomen a name which was original^ applied in the 

 specific sense, I should like to see this distinct and handsome 

 form of the female recognised as ab hectori, Butl. 



It does seem important that varietal forms of Lepidoptera 

 should be distinguished by names, the comparative rarity or 

 otherwise of which may then be placed on record with who 

 knows what valuable result to science in after-vears in a 

 country like New Zealand, when the local fauna becomes, 

 as it undoubtedly must, more or less modified by altered 

 environment brought about by the agency of man, the effects 

 of which may be better observed in a comparatively small 

 area than in large continental areas. 



May we speculate on what was the primitive stock from 

 which G. virescens was derived— i.e., Charagia or Hcpialus ? 

 There is little doubt the colour was green, the white of the 

 male and dark female markings being more recently acquired. 

 This is found in the greater permanence of the green color- 

 ation as compared with the other less constant colours. 

 Everywhere in the Hepialida we find white is a varietal 

 colour ; indeed, in Hepiakis humuli the male is uniformly 

 white on the upper surface of both wings. The original form, 

 resembling the female coloration and markings, still exists in 

 the Shetland Islands, being known as " var. hethlandica." 



The Queensland species, C. daphnandra, is just such a 

 species as might have been ancestral to C. virescens ; the 

 coloration of both sexes is the same, being green, with 

 scarcely any wing-markings. Several Australian Charagia 

 have silvery spots on the fore wings, amongst these being 

 C. eximia. We can safely place the white-spotted C. virescens 



*Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1877. 



