VARIATION. 296 



subject can immediately say to what butterfly any particiilar egg 

 belongs." There are no quotation marks again, so evidently this is the 

 result of another (later ?) observation made by Mr, Dale. I do not like 

 to suggest it, but the verbatim similarity of this erroneous statement to 

 that of Newman just quoted, leads one insensibly to suppose that the 

 observation was made, not on an egg of 'pohjchloros, but on p. 8 of 

 Newman's British BiiUerjiies. Compilers are most useful men if they 

 will only use ({notation marks, but it is too bad to give as the result of 

 observation, paragraj^hs from other works, especially when these happen 

 to be erroneous. — J. W. Tutt. November 8th. 



Hariation. 



Chelonia plantaginis ab. hospita. — On the 12th of May last I again 

 saw four sj)ecimens of C. plantaginis al). hospita, and on the following 

 day one more. This makes eight specimens seen by me during the last 

 two seasons on the same piece of broken ground where the type is 

 pretty common. I should be glad to hear whether this ab. is generally 

 found as far south as this ! — F. B. Newnham, Chiirch Stretton, Salop. 



Abraxas grossulariata ab. dohrni. — In Entom., April 1889, I 

 applied the name deleta to the aberration of A. tjrossnlariata, in which 

 the black markings are very much reduced. Looking over the Bull. 

 Sac. Ent. France, April 24th, 1889, I find the same aberration referred 

 to by M. C. Oberthlir as ab. dohrni. I have not at hand the necessary 

 literature to ascertain which name has priority, but proljably it is dohrni, 

 as M. Oberthiir does not appear to indicate the name as new. — T. D. A. 

 CooKERELL, Agricultural Experimental Station, Las Cruces, New 

 Mexico, U.S.A. August 20th, 1893. 



Ohrysophanus PHLtEAS Var. — This butterfly has verily abounded 

 this autumn. I have seen it far away from its larval home, flitting 

 merril}'^ along the dusty main roads, and it seemed to be quite at home 

 in our gardens. A very nice variety was presented to me last month. 

 It was taken at Barnes. The spots on the primaries are very large and 

 elongated. The specimen is in good order and nearly approaches a 

 banded form taken some years ago in Worcestershire. — Alfred T. 

 Mitchell, 5, Clayton Terrace, Gunnersbury, W. October 3rd, 1893. 



Variety Breeding. — Much time has been devoted of late years by 

 entomologists in general to the collecting and breeding of " varieties " 

 of insects, and the almost universal ambition of most " brothers of the 

 net " now is to secure some startling departure from the usual typical 

 forms. I think, however, that in the majority of cases, not of course 

 without some striking exceptions, the great aim of the entomologist 

 has been to secure a good row of " vars." for his cabinet, rather than to 

 advance the ends of science. A favourite practice is that of breeding 

 large numbers of larva?, frequently those of Arctia caia, upon almost every 

 conceivable food-plant, without making any particular observations about 

 them, leaving them to fate until the imagines emerge. Then, if any 

 peculiar variety does apjjear, instead of hazarding having it " spoiled " 

 in endeavouring to pair it with another similar form, I am afraid the 

 tempting thought of " How nicely that would fill u}) the last row in 

 my bottom drawer " is frequently far too strong, and another chance of 



