108 THte Entomologist's record. 



somewhat significant when we come to consider that this nervure 

 corresponds exactly with the one which forms the tail in the posterior 

 wing. I do not think besides this that there is any imj)ortant variation 

 in the neiiration of P. machaon. I have one specimen in which 

 nervures 3 and 4 of the posterior wings are united from the discoidal 

 cell to the commencement of the sub-marginal band, so that there only 

 appear to Ije three nervures instead of four proceeding from the black 

 patch on the discoidal lunule, which causes more strangeness of ai)pear- 

 ance than might he imagined ; another specimen is entirely without 

 nervure 3 in all the wings ; this causes a considerable narrowing of the 

 wings, and conseipient absence of one sub-marginal yelloAv spot or 

 lunule in each wing, and on the underside of the posterior wings the 

 loss of the first of the two large red patches ; both right and left sides 

 are exactly alike, the symmetry being as perfect as in a normal 

 S2)ecimen. 



In conclusion, I would remark that although my statistics, esj^ecially 

 referring to the development of red in the posterior wings, may be 

 taken as fairly applicable to British specimens, they would, jn-obably, 

 not hold good with specimens from other jiarts of tlie world ; some 

 from the South of France, Italy, and Germany, in Mr. Bryan's col- 

 lection, are much paler than British sjjecimens, the Itlack bands are 

 narrower, and the yellow — which consequently occupies a greater pro- 

 portion of the Avings — is clearer, and there is considerably less red in 

 the sub-marginal lunules ; it will be seen that this latter agrees with 

 Mr. Weir's remarks in Entomohxjist, xxiv., p. 105. In this same 

 volume of The Entomologist, p. 82, Mr. South writes in an article, '* On 

 Certain British Lepidoptera occurring in Easteni Asia": — "• Papilio 

 machaon, Linn. — Mr. Elwes says : — ' The forms of P. machaon found in 

 X.E. Asia seem to be similar to the Eiiropean ones, though usually 

 larger. In Kamtschatka, according to Menetries, the variety which he 

 calls asiatica . . . differs generally in the broader black band and 

 markings, which, however, vary extremely, and gTadually increase 

 until in the var. hippocrates (which I have only seen from China and 

 Japan) the yelloAv is half obliterated by the black markings. . . . 

 Erom ova deposited ])y a typical female captured at Nagasaki, Japan, 

 in May, Mr. Leech In'ed in the following June a fine series of vars. 

 asiatica and hippocrates, some specimens had the usual pro^jortion of 

 black and yellow, others were of a much deeper yellow than 

 the ordinary type, and some were nearly all black, being by far 

 the most pronounced var. hippocrates I have yet seen. Every 

 specimen was much larger than the parent.' " To this I may add 

 that, I have seen in Mr. Leech's collection a specimen entirely 

 black. Papilio machaon used to be by no means the exclusive Een 

 species it has become of late years in •, this country ; and this isolation, 

 no doul>t, has much to do with the extreme development of such a 

 marking as the red patches in the posterior wings ; and, as humidity is 

 considered an important factor in tlie production of nielanic forms, may 

 not their restriction to a Een habitat in England have much to do Avith 

 the increased size of the l)lack markings ? — W. Fakren, Fern House, 

 Union Koad, Cambridge. 



Melanochroism near London. — As variation near London has a 

 tendency to melanism, a list of the melanic vars. should prove interest- 

 ing. Will other entomologists supplement the following list? 



