21G fAp"'. 



districts. A similar phenomenon is also displayed in the genus Ccenoni/inpha. 

 Euchloe Euplieno frequently presents very diminutive specimens flying in the same 

 locality with those of the normal size ; and hermaphrodites occur not very rarely 

 It is also noticeable that the orange of cardamines sometimes extends so far as to 

 embrace the discoidal spot. 



Leucophasia sinapis varies in the shape of the apical blotch of the S in spring 

 and summer, while in the ? it is partially or entirely absent. Another aberration 

 presents an entirely white under-side of the hind-wings. 



Of our two species of CoUas, Edusa shows a bleached ? form, which, like the 

 pale Vanessa levana of springtime, and the Alpine variety of Pieris napi, is said to 

 bear testimony to a former sub-arctic climate. Several other European species of 

 CoUas present a similar bleached ? dimorphism, as well as some species from Africa 

 and America. In C. HyaJe, $ , the bleached form is the usual one, while it is said 

 that a more strongly coloured aberration has been also observed, but very rarely. 

 C. Palceno likewise has a pale $ usually, and only occasionally a form approaching 

 the S coloration. The ordinary $ of C. Patceno is very pale, but a more highly 

 coloured aberration also occurs. 



The two European species of Oonopteryx arc extremely stable, and this renders 

 more interesting the record by Curtis, in his "British Entomology," of an English 

 O. rhamni with an orange flush on the fore-wings. Had the example been a g , 

 one would have concluded that some similar aberration had been the ancestor of 

 O. Cleopatra, with its matchless orange-flushed fore-wings. The females of the two 

 species are almost indistinguishable. 



When we arrive at the LyccenidcB, we find a wide field for interesting investi- 

 gation, and one which is being illustrated, as far as British examples are concerned, 

 in some valuable papers by Mr. South. 



The genus Lycana comprehends a multitude of species on the Continent, many 

 of which closely approximate, while their varieties often present very analagous 

 characters. The females of two or more species are often almost indistinguishable, 

 although the males are strongly characterized. L. Icarus, for example, has usually 

 a dull brown ? , extremely like that of lellargus (AdonisJ ; but sometimes in 

 England, and very frequently in Ireland, it is almost as blue as the $ , but with a 

 lovely border of large orange lunules on both wings. It would be of much interest 

 to ascertain in what districts this form crops up, as it possibly depends on climatic 

 influence. An exactly parallel ? dimorphism occurs on the Continent with L. bellar- 

 gns (Adonis), (ab. ? Ceronus), and this I think exemplifies the rule pointed out by 

 Darwin, that kindred species often exhibit homologous variations. The c? Icarus 

 also occasionally approximates to its cousin hellargns f AdonisJ, in having almost as 

 brilliant an azure blue, and I have seen specimens in which the rudiments of a 

 chequered fringe existed, and not very rarely eye spots are to be found on the border 

 of the hind-wings. Mr. Jenner Weir has called attention to the increased breadth 

 of the black apex of the fore-wing of L. Argiolns $ in its second emergence. In 

 the south of Europe this character seems constant, suggesting a climatic origin. We 

 see similar phenomena displayed in many other Phopalocera, whose summer form 

 in North and Central Europe is the only one known in the extreme south, and it has 

 been stated by a trustworthy authority, that in excessively hot summers, characters 

 usually peculiar to certain butterflies in the most southern European latitudes have 

 been developed in Central Europe. 



