90 THE entomologist's record. 



brown is crossed by the still whitish veins, which will receive their 

 pigmentation last. In A. levana these veins are still transparent. The 

 median and inner marginal spots also blacken in the pupa before 

 the apical blotch, which is just what P. c-album and P. efiea picture in 

 the perfect state, besides showing how black markings are graduallj^ 

 evolved out of the orange ground colour. Similar evidence of the 

 gradual development of wing-markings is, however, still more strikingly 

 supplied by Araschnia levana and its different aberrations, the latter, 

 for instance, beautifully illustrating the development or the masking 

 of the white bands of A. prorsa, the process evidently being con- 

 ducted in the same way as is suggested in the Pyrameids — Fyrameis 

 carye, P. virginiensis, and P. myrinna, figs. 10, 11, 12, Though it does 

 not appear as yet to have been possible to cause specimens of 

 P. atalanta to revert to the primitive light upperside, yet the species is 

 well linked with P. indica by aberration (and by its life-history), and 

 this latter more primitive form shows comparatively strong transitory 

 details to the orange ground colour of P. cardiii, or of that phylo- 

 genetic mirror, A. levana. 



Explanation of Plate I. 

 Vanessids : 



Figs. 1, 5, 9. — Pyrameis carddi, L., ? . 



Figs. 2, 6, 10.— Pyeameis carye, Hb., ? . 



Figs. 3, 7, 11. — Pyeameis virginiensis, Drur., ? . 



Figs. 4, 8, 12. — Pyrameis myrinna, Doubl., ,J . 



Figs. 13, 17. — Pyrameis indica, Herbst, c? . 



Fig. 14. — Araschnia levana, L. ab. 'i . 



Fig. 18. — Pyrameis atalanta, L., <j . 



Figs. 15, 16. — Pyrameis atalanta ab. klemensiewiczi, Schille, ? . 



Fig. 19. — Pyrameis carddi ab. wiskotti, Stdfss., ? . 



Fig. 20. — Vanessa urtic^e, L., ? . 



Lyc^nids : 



Figs. 21, 22. — CupiDO minimus (greenish cf and normal ? ). 



Figs. 23, 24, 25, 26. — Polyommatus icarus (two brown and two blue ? s, the- 



latter exhibiting only very slight traces of red in the margins ; for 



text, see vol. xxi., pts. 9 and 10). 



On the Conjugation of Lepidoptera. 



By (Rev.) C. E. N. BUEROWS, F.E.S. 

 Dr. Chapman's interesting note and plate in your last number 

 encourage me to carry the subject of the transference of the cornuti 

 between the sexes of lepidoptera a little further. In examining the 

 males of the Noctuids neither Mr, Pierce nor I noticed a trace of this. 

 In fact, I satisfied myself that the cornuti in this group are generally so 

 firmly attached to the vesica that they have to be torn away, carrying 

 with them a portion of the epidermis of the vesica. It is to be regretted 

 that we did not examine the females, as we might perhaps have found 

 some species in which the transference occurs. But I have traced it in 

 other groups, A pair of Gnophos obscurata, taken m cop. by Mr, Prout,. 

 and intended to be forwarded to me in that position, separated on 

 death. No force was applied, as the object Mr, Prout had before him 

 was definite. On preparing their bodies I found the cornuti within the 

 bursa of the female. In the Tortricids the occurrence seems likely to 

 be more frequent, as I have, with very limited opportunity for investi- 



