Wl 



130 [J""'- 



nigrocoeridea. The sky-ljlue tint of all the wings is really exquisite, but 

 unfortunately the tint is evanescent, and in a year or two it has become 

 a clingy dove colour. Of the only other extra named form, var. nigra, 

 the extreme dark form of the var. which has the head, thorax, Ijody, and 

 "wiiigs of a deep blue-black, I usually reared sevex'al each year. Some of 

 my specimens of nigrosparsata have all the wings almost entirel}^ 

 black, with a submarginal broad band of white on the fore wings, 

 or the band speckled with black to a greater or lesser degree in 

 different specimens, whilst one is practically black, with the excep- 

 tion of a white patch at the anal angle of each fore wing. Some, 

 too, have all the wings almost blue-black, with the exception of the 

 usual basal and median golden bands, which stand out clear and give 

 the insect a lovely appearance. Several of the nigrocoerulea have 

 series of broad dark rays from the marginal spots to the median fascia, 

 which give an exceedingly fine effect. Some of the sjjecimens have 

 the hind wings with the dense patches of black irregularly streaked 

 with white. Another striking form is that with the fore wings more or 

 less normal, but with the hind wings entirely slaty black, or brown, in 

 different specimens. Asymmetry is common in the form, some exam- 

 ples having three wings nigrosfarsata, and the fourth, usually a hind 

 wing, is almost normal ; but one specimen I have has three wings var. 

 nigra, and the right fore wing irregularly streaked wdth white. 



The shade of colour, too, varies largely in different specimens, from 

 a pure white ground to yellowish, slate-colour, various browns, blue, blue- 

 black to black. Indeed, the variation of the forms seems endless, and 

 little idea of it can be given from description. Practically all my 

 specimens have been bred from wild collected larvae and pupae, for the 

 form will not breed true. I have tried it over and over again with some 

 of the finest and most extreme specimens, but in only one case got more 

 than about the same percentage of the variety as one does from wild 

 collected larvae, practically all emerging as the ordinary normal forms. 



The next variety in point of interest is varleyata. This magnificent 

 form was first bred by the late Mr. James Varley in 1864, in which year 

 lie reared eleven specimens from, as I think he used to say, " two pints 

 of caterpillars " collected from a garden in one of the smokiest parts of 

 Huddersfield; and I well remember the mild sensation they created 

 among the lepidopterists of that day, when figures of some of them 

 were published in the " Naturalist." To my mind it is still the finest of 

 all the varieties of British lepidoptera. Unlike so many other melanic 

 insects, it has not progressed in numbers at all, and remains to-da}^ as 



