HERMAI^HRODITISM IX METANASTRIA 

 PITHYOCAMPA CRAM. 



Hv Franklin William I^-.tti-.n'. i>..\. 



{Plate 12.) 



Younjj; le|)i(lo])ter()US larvcC were found in a cluster feeding' 

 on the leaves of an oak-tree at Elsenburg, Mulder's Vlei, Cape 

 Province, in .\])ril, KjiT). 



The transformation into the ccx'oon staj^e did not occur 

 until the 1st of December. Six moths emeri^ed several weeks 

 later. ( )n spreadini"- the wings of the moths for museum speci- 

 mens, the writer noticed that in one specimen the right w'ing's 

 were larger than the left. Closer examination revealed the 

 fact that it was a case of longitudinal herma])hroditism. the 

 smaller wings (left side) Ijeing characteristic f(»r the male, and 

 i.lu' larger (right side) ifor the female. The left antenna was 

 characteristic f(jr the male, and the right one for the female, 

 l^ven the alxlomen was divided sexually into riu'ht and left 

 halves, as exidenced l)y the greater i>ul)escence and the darker 

 colour characteristic of the male. 



A male moth was found attached caudally to the herma- 

 i:)hro(litic insect apparently in the act oi copulation. 



Fols(jm states tliat " the phenomenon of hermaphroditisni 

 (Occurs only as an extremely rare abnormality amo'ng insects. 

 Speyer estimated that in Fepidoj^tera only one individual in 

 ,^o,ooo is ]iermai)hroditic. Bertkau (i88(;) listed 335 herma- 

 Ijhroditic arthropods, of which <S were crustaceans, 2 spiders. 2 

 Orthoptera, <S iJiptera, i) Coleoptcra. 51 I lymcnoptera, and 255 

 [.e])ido]jtera. The large ])roportion of Lepidoptera is due in 

 great measure to the fact that they are collected oftener than 

 other insects (excepting possibly Coleoptera ) . and that sexual 

 dimorphism is so ])revalent in the order that hermaphrodites are 

 easily recognized. The most common kind of hermaphroditism 

 is that in which one side is male and the other female. . . . In 

 other instances the antero-posterior kind may occur, as when 

 the fore-wdngs are of one sex, and the hind-wings of the other ; 

 rareh^ the characters of the two sexes are intermingled. 

 Hemaphn^ditic insects are such rarities that very few of them 

 have been sacrificed to the dissecting needle in order to deter- 

 mine whether the phenomenon involves the primary organ as 

 well as the secondary sexual characters. When dissections have 

 been made it has been found usually that hermaphroditism diies 

 extend to the reproductive organs themselves. Thus a butterfly, 

 with male wings on the right side and female wings on the left, 

 would have a testis on the ri^iht side of the abdomen and an 

 ovar}' on the left side." 



(Read, July 6, 19 17.) 



A 



