VARIATION. 7 



the larvae. But I would ask what effect (direct or indirect) can 

 the actinic rays of the sun have on those larvae which have 

 not the slightest trace of chlorophyll in their pigment. Noctu^ 

 larvae, which feed on roots and never come under the influence 

 of sunlight at all ; wood-borers as the HepialidcB, Sesiidce, etc., 

 Prays curtisellus ; richly-coloured, densely-haired larvae as 

 Arctiid(2 and Acronycta, and so on, many of the species of which 

 show melanic variation. I am afraid I must own that at present 

 I am unable to see any connection between cause and effect in 

 this direction, although it certainly is a matter worthy of the 

 most careful consideration. 



Although I thus still venture to differ from Lord Walsingham, 

 I must candidly confess that his remarks have modified my 

 previously formed opinions, and that I should not now feel 

 inclined to give the probable action of sunlight the short shrift 

 I gave it in a previous paragraph. 



{To be continued.) 



Vars. of Hypsipetes elutata. — I have had considerable experience 

 with this species from various districts both among sallow and Vacci- 

 nium ; the former specimens are, as a rule, much larger and the green 

 of a paler hue, and nothing like as variable as the Vaccinium specimens. 

 Of course the sallow ones vary. There is a form on our high moors 

 that has an ocellated spot on the upper wing that does not appear so 

 striking in the sallow feeders, if at all. Last season on the high grounds 

 (moors) I paid special attention to the elevations, and started at the 

 top of a very wet boggy place among the Vaccinium, here they were 

 small and nearly black, some quite so ; as I came down the hill where 

 it was much drier, the species swarmed ; these were nearer to the 

 sallow form, in fact, some were mixed, but of an intermediate colour. 

 Still lower, most of them were of the sallow type, larger and of the green 

 hue, although there are no sallows within miles of the spot. The 

 weather was bad and the species soon got worn, although, as it was, I 

 got some charming varieties. — J. B. Hodgkinson. March ^Tth, 1891. 



Xanthia aurago var. fuscata. — I find this variety at the rate of 

 about one in twenty. This species is occasionally abundant here, and 

 in 1875 every patch of sugar was crowded with them, and I sent out 

 hundreds about the country. — -W. Holland, Reading. 



Asphalia diluta var. nubilata. — I sometimes get the var with three 

 bands in the Basingstoke district. — Id. 



Variety of Phigalia pilosaria. — On February 7th, 1891, I took 

 one specimen of a dark olive-green (nearly black) variety of the above 

 species in a wood at Otley. I only obtained one other insect which 

 was a rather light type of the same species. All the trees in the part of 

 the wood where I took both insects were covered, even to the fine twigs, 



