DISTRIBUTE INSECT VAllIETY. 283 



melanism in the bntterfly and moth fauna. The system of varia- 

 tion in such localities is the same, showing the effect is directly 

 dependent on the glandular organs of the insect, and that the law 

 is constant, while external conditions of the environment are multi- 

 farious. Thus the shades of the New Forest afford us a constant 

 variety [Valezina) of the Fritillary FapMa, which instead of being 

 fulvous, is brown and spotted instead of streaked along the nervures. 

 Another sub-variety of this lepidopteron, taken by Mr. Bates, 

 showed a white spot on either wing. It is thought the years the 

 species is scarce this Black Paphia is most plentiful. Somewhat 

 less commonly, the sooty variety of the floating White Admiral 

 Butterfly is seen among the briery tangles of our woods, showing 

 coal-black wing with the distinctive white ribbon more or 

 less obliterated from its disc. And on the Alps, altitude is found 

 to have the same effect as shade in casting these sports from its 

 dies, which there roam at large, as here beneath the lowland 

 brush. In the New Forest likewise, not unfrequently the black- 

 dusted geometers of the bushes, come into our nets and collecting 

 boxes with the irroration on their wings increased so as to confer 

 a dingy, if not a unicolorous appearance ; and the little Prajjs 

 Ciirtisellus sometimes has the white totally effaced from its 

 fore-wing, as I have found it near Lymington. AncJi/jlojjera 

 stibarcuana, Wilk., also produces a grey variety. In Sherwood 

 Forest a singular specimen of our Small Copper has been taken 

 with the rufous colour replaced by white. 



As regards proximity to the sea, butterflies are there paler 

 or darker, and frequently want wing-spots. A specimen of the 

 Tiger Moth {Chelonia vlllica) captured near Brighton, had the 

 " cream spots •'■' on its fore-wings more or less obliterated, most 

 completely so on the right ; and Erebia Bland'ma, from Morecombe 

 Bay, had the brown bands on the fore-wings replaced by yellow. 

 As the female of the last species in the Lake District is 

 dimorphic, with a bluish-ash band on the posterior wings, these 

 markings would appear to vary between ash, ochreous, and brown. 

 The Lepidoptera at Hastings and on the coast of Wales have 

 been in like manner noticed as being often deviations from the 

 types, as have some from the I^en Districts. 



Butterflies and moths are next g-^nerally melanic near large 

 towns. A Small Copper taken near London had the superior 



