HEREDITY NOTES. 253 



taken from an extra copy of this numbei- and fastened into British 

 Lepidoptera, etc., vol. iv., p. 489, to complete the life-history of this 

 species. Ed.] 



Heredity Notes. 



By (Rev.) G. H. RAYNOR, M.A. 



During the last six years I have been breeding Abraxas (jrossn- 

 lariata very largely, with a view to proving or refuting the Mendelian 

 theory, which may be briefly stated as follows. If you pair a normal 

 male Avith an aberrant female of any species, or vice versa, the progeny 

 of the first generation will be all normal, but of that of the second 

 generation two-thirds will be normal, and the other third aberrant. 

 If, however, you pair an aberrant male with an aberrant female, the 

 whole progeny of the first generation should be aberrant. It is only 

 during the last twelve months that I have been able to carry out my 

 experiments with a view to testing the truth of the latter part of the 

 above-mentioned theory. In July, 1904, I bred, for the first time, a 

 few males of Abraxas grossulariata ah. Jiavofasciata, Unene. One of 

 these I paired with a female of the same aberration (or variety, call it 

 which you will). The progeny resulting in June, 1905, consisted of 

 thirteen specimens, all of them flavofasciata. So far the Mendelian 

 theory appeared to me to be true, but, in May, this j^ear, an oppor- 

 tunity presented itself of experimenting with another species, viz., 

 Cidaria trnncata. I had long been anxious to obtain a pairing between 

 a male and female of the very striking variety of this species, with the 

 central area of the forewings yellow — var. coiinna-notata. Last 

 autumn (1904) I obtained batches of ova from several wild females 

 (both typical russata and var. couima-notata) taken (in my own garden 

 here) chiefly on flowers of Epilobium anijustifuliuiii and Solidago cana- 

 densis. These produced imagines in May, 1905, and among them was 

 a family containing many coDnna-nntata of both sexes. Between these 

 brothers and sisters I effected several pairings, but from three only 

 were fertile eggs obtained. These three families, herein designated 

 alpha, (jamma, and delta, I attended to with the utmost care, but owing, 

 I suppose, to the parent moths being so closely related, only a moderate 

 number of moths came out. However, the results I consider extremely 

 interesting, much as I regret that they altogether fail to support the 

 Mendelian theory. Family a consisted of four moths, viz., one typical 

 trnncata and 3 var. comma-notata. Family y contained 23 moths, 6 of 

 which were trnncata and 17 comma-untata. Family 5 comprised 12 

 specimens, equally divided between the type and the variety. The 

 grand total of specimens, therefore, works out at 89, exactly one-third 

 of which were typical, and the remaining two- thirds aberrant. The 

 result of my experiment will not, I fear, be altogether gratifying to 

 Mendelians, but "magna est Veritas et praevalebit." What the 

 " Veritas " is with regard to heredity in lepidoptera seems at present 

 incapable of definition, but I have another species in view on which I 

 mean to experiment next season, if all is well, and I feel sure there 

 must be many among your readers Avho have the opportunity and 

 facilities for assisting to elucidate the interesting problem which now 

 confronts biologists. 



