1877.] 257 



■we know that this phenomenon of natxirc has been accepted, wo may fairly be per- 

 mitted to consider it as a probable cause of melanism or leucochroism, under suitable 

 conditions. 



A^ow, it curiously helps this idea, when we consider that the very localities 

 where we find melanism in Xe/iicZo/i^era most pi-onounced, viz., Yorkshire, Lancashire, 

 and Durham, are all manufacturing districts, where immense volumes of smoke are 

 constantly given off from furnaces and coal-pits, covering more or less the whole of 

 the vegetation with a fuliginous deposit, giving to large tracts the name of " the 

 black country." What is more natural than that this prevailing color, continually 

 before the vision of the pregnant insects, should tend very largely to produce melanism) 

 known to be so common in these regions, in their offspring ? Smoky London too 

 produces its melanic variety, perfumaria, of Boarmia rhomboidaria. The New 

 Forest is also prone to produce melanic forms, where the sod is in pla<;es extremely dark 

 colored, induced, doubtless, by the abundance of astringent vegetable matters, 

 tannic or other acids, which through the annual decay of large quantities of oak, 

 common brakes and heath, is set free, and washed into a soil charged with iron, and 

 producing an inky blackness of earth. I could enumerate several Lepidoptera of 

 this district that are decidedly melanic in tendency (and may mention that the 

 common viper here is often quite black, the characteristic black or dark diamond 

 pattern of its back being only faintly indicated, in consequence of the blackness of 

 the whole body). But tlie best insect to illustrate my view is Gnophos obscuraria, 

 a species very common in some parts of the Forest and where the soil is very black, 

 and here is the most positive black type, harmonizing with the soil ; this same species 

 a few miles off, on the chalk, becomes a beautiful pale gi'ey or almost white, agreeing 

 admirably with the white and grey of the soil : thus, on the black soil we get 

 obscuraria black, and on the chalk, pale grey. 



Aben-ation of color in an insect may be occasional and purely accidental, but 

 when we see, not single specimens but a constant and invariable prevalence of this 

 harmonizing with the surrounding soil, I cannot but think, that the cause may be 

 mainly the powerful impression of surrounding objects on the female during the all 

 important period of life, viz., that of propagation, coupled with an instinctive pro- 

 vision for the protection of its future progeny : at any rate, the subject merits a 

 further and deeper investigation. — William Heney Tugwkll, 3, Lewisham Road, 

 Greenwich : March, 1877. 



The Sale of the late Mr. JEdwin Brown's Collections. — As this sale (which took 

 place on the 9th, 10th, and 12th of March, at Stevens' rooms) was probablj' the most 

 important that has ever occurred, a few statistics will be interesting. The entire 

 Collection was comprised in over 900 lots, and realized about £1,670. That it was 

 rich all round is sufficiently obvious, but Mr. Brown paid especial attention to 

 Geodephagous Coleoptera. The Cicindelidce were sold for nearly £1G0, the Carabidce 

 for about £480, the Cetoniidce for about £215. The British Insects (excluding 

 Lepidoptera, which were not in the sale) were sold for about £125, a portion of them 

 being secured for the Royal Dublin Society. A vei'y good British Herbarium was 

 sold for the utterly insignificant sum of £6 Gs. A few details may be given. The 

 species of the genus Manticora, comprised in four lots, were sold for nearly £16. 

 Amilychila Piccolominii (1 example) for £5 10s. (II. Deyrolle), Flatychila pallida 



