NOTES ON AGRIADES CORIDON. 22& 



to the male. Even the blue scales are more like those found in females 

 of Aiiriades coridon, intermediate between the type and the ab. semi- 

 sijHf/rapha, than in males. On the whole, the evidence is against the 

 splashes of blue colour being due to the presence of male tissue, such 

 as occurs in true hermaphrodites, though it is not absolutely conclusive. 

 I should like to examine more specimens with similar blue streaks for 

 androconial scales in the absence of fresh material. It would also be 

 most interesting to dissect a few female specimens of other species, 

 such as Eiichlo'e cardamines, showing splashes of colour peculiar in the 

 male and never present in the normal female. These are usually 

 regarded as true hermaphrodites, but there is no sufficient evidence to 

 support this view. 



Passing on to the first six specimens described it will be seen that 

 asymmetrical in size and colour, they form a descending series. The 

 more the blue scaling, the smaller the wing, on which it occurs, tends 

 to become. The blue scaling shows a very remarkable peculiarity in 

 that it is accompanied by numbers of the coarse hair scales, always 

 present in the male, but absent even in the bluest ab., seinisynt/rapha, 

 of the female. More important still is the presence in them 

 of androconial scales otherwise known as " battledore scales," or 

 " blasenschuppen," which are confined to the male, and are generally 

 regarded as scent scales with a sexual significance. The number of 

 androconia present obviously depends on the amount of blue scaling 

 in the parts of the wing where androconia are most abundant in the 

 normal male. Probably there are a few present even in the two speci- 

 mens in which I failed to detect them. In both the females, in which 

 I failed to find them, blue scales were scanty in the areas where these 

 androconia are most abundant. 



Another fact of the greatest interest is that in the first four there 

 is no abnormality of ovaries or cement glands, such as almost invariably 

 occurs in hermaphrodites. 



In the fifth there is a considerable deficiency of internal organs ; 

 but the sixth, outwardly much the most remarkable specimen, shows 

 no abnormality of the internal organs beyond a few small gaps in the 

 regular disposition of the ova. 



None of the specimens showed any maldevelopment of the external 

 armature, and most remarkable of all, none showed any trace of 

 male sex gland or of structures belonging to the male genital organs,, 

 either mternal or external. In these respects the specimens appear 

 to be unlike any hitherto described. 



Another point of interest is that though the male A. coridon is con- 

 siderably larger than the female, all the specimens which resemble 

 those I have described have the wings which show both male and 

 female characters smaller than those which show female characters 

 alone. 



Instances of perfectly halved gynandromorphous insects with almost 

 normal female internal organs and without any trace of male internal 

 organs are well-known. Indeed, I have dissected one myself, but in 

 these there are considerable parts of the external chitinous structures 

 of the male present in addition to those peculiar to the female. 



The absence of any sexual characters of the two sexes in 

 my specimens rules them out of this class. The name pseudo- 

 hermaphrodite is unsuitable for them. It is used for individuals of 



