156 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The characters of protection and defense form an interesting subject 

 in the natural history of external feeding larvae, such as those of the 

 Lepidoptera, for here the insect must rely on them and can do little or 

 nothing by movement. Therefore they can here be the more readily 

 detected. In tracing descent and relationship between the species, the 

 modifications of the external characters of the larvae must lead to the best 

 results, to the safest conjectures as to the line taken. Almost all our 

 knowledge as to any species and its habits is fragmentary and incomplete. 

 What piece and parcel we observe we are apt to be very certain about, 

 and we do not hesitate to draw therefrom very absolute conclusions, with 

 an air of authority incommensurate with our knowledge. But in the 

 multitude of counsellors there is in this case so far safety, that each may 

 bring his observations and conclusions to paper, and, if the editor will 

 print them, from the sifting of the whole a picture will in time be drawn 

 which will stand in some proportion to the real truth. 



THE ORANGE SPOT IN NATHALIS IOLE, Bdw. 



BY T. D. A. COCKERELL, WEST CLIFF, COLORADO. 



On November ist, 1887, I took in this locality (Swift Creek, near 

 West Cliff,) an example of NatJuxlis io/e, and was thereby led to examine 

 its characters. The general colour of the upper side of this insect is pale 

 yellow. The primaries are marked with pale black (if one may use such 

 a term,) after the manner described in the text books, and the upper 

 margins of the secondaries also present a black patch, covering the area 

 which is normally overlapped by the primaries. On this black patch, 

 not far from the base of the wing, is an elongated spot of the most vivid 

 orange. 1 first noticed this spot when setting out my specimen, and was 

 led to wonder why the most vivid piece of colouring in the whole insect 

 should be situated where it was invisible under ordinary conditions. 

 Could it be due to some peculiarity in the development of the pigment 

 induced by its peculiar position on the wing? was it a relic of the 

 original colour of the insect, which not being under the same influences 

 as the exposed parts, had not become modified in the course of ages ? 

 or was it a secondary sexual character to be exhibited by the raising of 

 the primaries ? 



Being unable to answer these questions, I put the insect away until 

 January 12th, when I sent it off with other butterflies to Mr W. H. 



