ON SOME RACES OF LASIOCAMPA QtrERCf-S. 257 



whilst L. var. meridioualis keeps its tint of silky grey. The two races 

 are about equally numerous, neither very rare nor very common, 

 though I am inclined to think that L. var. n'hunti is slightly more 

 abundant. Both are polyphagous. One is forced to suppose those of 

 iiKiididnalis the more voracious, for they grow nuich faster, I have 

 found them nearly full-grown as early as the beginning of March ; L. 

 var. vibitiiii grows more slowly, and the former pupates more than a 

 month before the latter. This advance is maintained, for the perfect 

 insect of L. var. mrn'(li(inalisemergesiro\n the middle of June, whilst that 

 of L. var. rihiinii does not fly until the end of August, and continues to 

 September 15th- 30th, I even think that one may consider this pecu- 

 liarity as one of the best characters which might serve to differentiate 

 the two forms, which are so close to one another in other respects 

 . that one should consider them chiefly in the larval stage, 

 in which the brown colour of rihunii is permanent, and also in their 

 epoch of emergence, which is fairly regularly 50 or 60 days later than 

 in the form ribitrui. It is a fairly commendable character, especially 

 when dealing with a variety only." 



/.. (jiicrcits (from Paris). —Described from three bred $ s and sixty 

 (? s, two ? s Avild specimens. Wings and body chocolate. ^ . — 

 Slightly redder than L. mcridionalis, which it closely approaches in 

 colour, tip of abdomen light. The band on the forewings varies from 

 a little over i inch to J^ inch in front, generally narrower on the 

 inner margin, where it nearly always turns inward in a slightly 

 crescentic hook. It is sharply defined inside, suffused outside, curve 

 very variable. On the hindwings it varies much in width, sometimes 

 extending nearly to the fringes with little brown between (as in the 

 form from the Gironde cedled (iitillcinotii, by Trimoulet). The baud is 

 light yellow, sometimes slightly redder on the hindwings. The margin 

 in the forewing powdered with the band-colour with the nervures (some- 

 times conspicuously) darker. Median spot variable in size, generally 

 medium, surrounded with darker. Fringe of hindwings of the same 

 colour as the band. $ . — Female ochreous, or ochreous-brown, without 

 any greenish tinge, darker inside the band, which is obsolete on the 

 hindwings, as in most of the British specimens, forming simply a 

 boundary between the colours of the basal and marginal areas. Band 

 of forewings obsolescent, suffused externally, bordered with slightly 

 darker within. Its general appearance is washed-out, like some of 

 the British specimens. It is duller than most of these, and consider- 

 ably duller than the south of France forms. The larvse were taken 

 in the environs of Paris, and were fed by my correspondent. Dr. 

 Vogt, on privet, on which I believe he usually found them. 



L. var. sinda. — The only specimens of var. simla at my disposal 

 are the descendants of 24 larvte sent me in January, 1897, by a 

 German correspondent. These, in their turn, were the offspring of a 

 batch of larvse found on ivy on a garden wall in Palermo the year 

 before, possibly all of one brood, so that all the specimens were to a 

 considerable extent inbred, and might be expected to be very constant 

 in marking, as, indeed, they were. All the specimens reared by my 

 correspondent himself in 1S96 were, so he wrote, very constant also, 

 except one ^ , the last to emerge (October 22nd), which was a small 

 specimen of the coloration of the female. None of my specimens, 

 either in the first or second generation, show vai'iation of this kind. 

 The following description is based on this material : — 



