ON' TWO VARUBT.K BROODS OF TRIPH.5EN'A COireS. 217 



On two variable broods of Triphaena comes, Hb. [melanozonias, 

 Gmel.] '■'■'■ from Forres. 



By LOUIS B. PKOUT, F.E.S. 



On August 25th and 28th, 1902, 1 beat, from the roots of Hiai-nini, 

 &c., on the Findhorn sandhills, about five miles from Forres, two worn 

 females of Tfipliaoia cmnrs [tiwlano^oniax), belonging in the broad 

 sense to the ab. ciirtixii, Newm. F>oth were so worn that it is impos- 

 sible to speak with precision of the exact form, but I judged that of 

 the former date, which I shall call " ? A," to be of the blaciiish ab. 

 niinrscena, Tutt (near tig. D2 Jvntom., xxii., pi. vi.), and that of the 

 latter to be a little redder, i.e., a true ab. citrtisii {Inc. cit., fig. C2 or 

 Dl, or probably between themj. Both were kept alive for ova, and 

 each obliged me with a batch of some three or four hundred. The 

 eggs hatched in 10 or 11 days, and the larvte were pushed forward by 

 keeping in warm places, so as to avoid the necessity for hibernating. 

 As there were many more than I could myself manage, I distributed 

 the overplus among several friends, some of whom unfortunately had 

 little or no success in bringing them through. The following account is 

 based on a study of those which were bred by myself and Messrs. A. 

 Bacot, W. J. Kaye, and S. Walker, of York; the last-named (14, of 

 brood B) I have not seen, but Mr. Walker has kindly sent me sufficient 

 details to enable me to include them in my classification. 



Brood A (parent $ of August 25th, 1902, ? ab. «////v.sw«.s). — The 

 total number of imagines bred was 167 (Prout, 114; Bacot, 58). 

 Mine emerged between December 22nd and February 4th, Mr. liacot's 

 from the end of January to the beginning of March. They split up 

 quite readily into two classes, the normal and the melanic, there being 

 none which by any possibility could be described as intermediates ; 74 

 (Front, 48 ; Bacot, 26) belonged to the former or more typical class, 

 93 (Prout, 66 ; Bacot, 27) to the latter — ab. curtisii, sens. lat. The acces- 

 sion of an admixture (more or less) of black scales in the ground-coloui', 

 characteristic of the latter, is in every case participated in by the 

 hindwings (though only weak in one of my reddest specimens), while 

 not one of the "typical" series shows any darkening of the hind- 

 wings. 



The matter of size is not one of much importance, as it is so largely 

 dependent on the treatment ; Mr. Bacot suggested that the melanic 

 specimens were on an average the smallest, but the measurements 

 which I have taken hardly bear this out, although it is noteworthy 

 that the more hhul,- examples of the nirtisii section do seem to be 

 decidedly smaller than the more red ones of the same. 'Sir. Bacot's 

 largest specimen measures 44mm., and is dark red, his second 48mm., 

 and is the same colour, the rest are smaller, on an average decidedly 

 so ; the smallest reach 86-5mm., and are pale (two or three 

 specimens), while several, both pale and dark, run to only 87ram.- 

 38mm. My largest also reaches 44mm., and, like Mr. Bacot's, is dark 

 red, several measure 48mm. ; the smallest three (two dark red, one 

 black) measure 87mm., while numerous, and of all colours, follow at 

 about 88mm. On the average, my portion of the brood is just a 

 trifle larger than Mr. Bacot's, probably because I kejjt my larva' on 

 the mantelpiece over a fire, and always with a superabundant supply 



* On the synonymy, see appendix to this article. 

 September 15th, 1903. 



