LEPIDOPTÉROLOGIE COMPARÉE 



brown somewhat triangular spot. Latéral ly, the legs are blackish 

 paler mixed, but some bear distinct yellow bars. The anal prolegs, 

 while less spreading than those in kirtaria, are more so than in 

 zonana. The posterior plate on the anal prolegs is dark grey, 

 heavily blackdotted. Thèse prolegs become somewhat yellowish 

 in front and, to a certain extents after the plate. The other 

 prolegs too, are grey, black-dotted, but near the hooks there is a 

 dull orange plate, also adorned with black spots. This is yellow 

 in zonaria and reddish orange in Inrtaria. The space between the 

 prolegs is yellowish, faintly flushed with pink. 



The primary tubercles on both head and body, are just as in 

 previous stages. 



Variation of larva. 



As may be expected from the hybrid origin of the larvas, there 

 is a great tendency to variability, depending on the unequal 

 influence of the two species in any given individual. Resulting 

 from this, any given feature, structural or otherwise, may vary from 

 being the mean of what holds in the two parents, to an exact 

 reproduction of the condition of one species only. As one parti- 

 cular feature may be affected at any given time or ail may be, 

 we can thus hâve individuals showing every stage of transition 

 between the two forms. Further, as the two parent species are 

 descended from common ancestors, ancestral features, long since 

 décadent in the parents, may by introduced. It would be of little 

 use, where so many points of variation arise, to tabulate thèse 

 points, but I wish to discuss a condition of affairs that arises from 

 variation confined to hirtaria al one. 



The larva of hirtaria is excessively variable, the variation con- 

 sisting in a total change in the ground colour which is usually 

 purple. It may become any shade from light grey to almost black 

 but this is not the feature I désire to emphasise. In many cases, 

 when the ground is darkened, the suffusion is irregular and local 

 but there is a particular case, in which the larva, before and after 

 a yellow bar, has a very strong almost black square spot which 



