S6 'rnK KNT():\ior.(K;isT's iieCohIj. 



to my knowledge, and that is in such wretched condition that I can 

 make nothin,!,^ out of it. 



From the very meagre inlormation on the suhject of Jiercdity in 

 this species whicli i yet have at connnand, tlie aljove statements 

 concerning local variation do not appear surprising : 1 hifer that, 

 given tolerably stable conditions of envinminent, the characteristic 

 niarkings of a form may be transmitted from generation to genera- 

 tion with a, considerable degree of persistency, a,nd hence that, in 

 some districts, what may be termed the " vai'iable strain " may 

 easily be bred out of existence in course of time, i have myself only 

 once bred M. furtuuta from the iigg, and then the whole brood 

 followed the normal parent form pretty closely ; and I find from the 

 l'!itti>iii(il<>;/i.st's llcmnl, vol. iv., p. 2H8, that ])r. Jhickell has had a 

 similar experience. The case is also genei'ally mucli the same in 

 allied species, as, for example, Mc/din'/iiir siifiatu, ( '(iri'iiiia (li'siti)iatn, 

 etc., etc. ; while, if one has the luck to get eggs from an abnormal 

 female, ;i most interesting and variable brood is likely to result. I 

 recently called attention in the l\iifi>niiil(>iiist's llcnird to a case in 

 poi]it, as ix'gards .1/. snri<it« : and ^Ir. (ioldtbwait has obtained some 

 extreme vars. of ( '. tlrsii/iiiif(( by breeding from ;i narrow-banded 

 female, and also a parallel series of .1/. jhirtiiatd. My idea is, there- 

 fore, from these and many simihii' instances, that there are, except in 

 a few extraordinarily aberrant species, constant strains running along- 

 side by side with the variable strains, and that the latter are not very 

 likely under oi-dinary circumstances to assume any local fixity, but 

 are. on the othei' band, somewhat liable to become suppressed m 

 time in certain regions. Staudinger's distinction l)etAveen " vai-.'' 

 and •' ab."' will be very useful in such species as this ; fo)- whilt' all 

 vars. may ap])ear casually here and there as aberrations, yet there 

 ari! certain aberrations which, as far as has yet been discovered, 

 have nowhere become permanent varieties. 



As regards the affinities of }f. titiciuatd. the less I say to-night, 

 the less I shall probably have to retract by-and-bye : foi- I neglected, 

 on the only occasion when 1 bred it from the egg, to make any 

 critical examination of the early stages. From what 1 recollect, I 

 imagine it will turn out to be somewhat closer to ('mrmia than to the 

 snciata group ; possibly .1/. innutauata will prove to be its nearest 

 ally, but I rather think the larva has a good deal in common with 



' '. <ltsii/)l<lt<(. 



The larva is a pretty general feeder on < 'rnn'h'nir, etc. Those 

 which I have occasionally come across in my garden have been found 

 on species of Tnipneolion, and this seems to be a very general food- 

 ])lant. There are at least two broods in the year, but, as with Cmrmia 

 fiirwiata, etc., emergences are sometimes very erratic. It is capable 

 of going through its metamorphoses very rapidly : my brood of eggs 

 was obtained on -Tune 22nd, 1H92, the larvic hatched on -Tune 28th, 

 commenced going to earth about July IGth, and the rirst imago 

 appeared on August 8rd ; but 1 find that shorter periods will suffice 

 at certain times of the year and under certain conditions. ^Ir. Fenn 

 [F.nt. /iVc, iii., 17G) gives five days for the ova, -Tuly 4 — 9,1874; 

 and about Wiesbaden, according to Rtissler, the larval period is fifteen 

 days only. On the other hand, a few larv;e (abotit fourteen) found 

 in my garden in September, 1890, behaved, in the pupal state, in 



