#^ AND %- 



JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



No. 1. Vol. II. April I5th, 1891. ' 



THE GENUS ACRONYCTA AND ITS ALLIES. 



By Dr. T. A. CHAPMAN. 

 {Continued from page 228.) 

 Ilate VIL Eggs of Viminia. — The eggs of Viminia 

 have a close resemblance to each other ; this is 

 brought out in the plate perhaps rather too strongly, 

 owing to the circumstance already alluded to that 

 in warm weather, and to some extent at all times, the eggs 

 possess their most typical and perfect colouring for only a 

 short time, and the artist has not in all instances seized this 

 moment. There is therefore something to desire in nearly all 

 these figures. It is, however, to be borne in mind, that these 

 eggs are perhaps as difficult subjects for pen and pencil as it is 

 possible to desire, and that the success, though qualified, is not 

 meagre, but the chief cause for regret is in not seizing the 

 moment when the &gg is at its best to make the drawing. 

 This is most notable in the case of miricoma, fig. 4, which has 

 a greater definiteness of marking than the other species, 

 approaching in this respect the Q.gg of alni, to which it has 

 considerable resemblance. Rjimicis also has as its most 

 definite point a distinctly paler area round the dark summit, 

 giving a characteristic dotted aspect to the &g%. Curiously 

 this character has been well seized in the drawing of venosa, 

 where it is less prominent. In the case of venosa the crenu- 

 lations of the ribs have been drawn more distinctly than in 

 the others, which they are not in reahty, except that the ribs 

 being fewer they are on a slightly larger scale and therefore 

 more evident, but they do not, as shown, form a distinct 

 system of transverse ribs. The groups showing imbricated 

 method of laying is very correctly displayed in 3a, venosa. In 

 ba and ^b the order is well shown, but it is comparatively 

 rarely that an Q.gg is out of its place as shown in one case in 



