16 thd; evolution of 



and to separate the one from the other in order to come 

 to the right conclusion. 



So for instance, this experimentist concludes by saying 

 that, as a result of her investigations, the ontogenetical 

 order of colours on the wings is the same as has been 

 observed by Urech and also indicated by Eimer as the 

 phylogenesis of Lepidoptera, namely this: Yellow appears first 

 and is followed by orange, lighter and darker red, red-brown 

 and finally by black, on which sometimes blue is seen as an 

 optical colour; a verdict not at all agreeing with my sup- 

 position that red appears as primary colour, slowly turning, 

 through orange and yellow, into white ; and that often, 

 but not always, during this process, — that is : sometimes 

 still on the red colour, but as well on the orange or 

 yellow *), black will appear, spreading out more or less, 

 to be finally also driven away -by white ; which means, 

 indeed, a fading-process from red into white, during which 

 sometimes black appears for a while and in a second- 

 ary way. 



Now let us see what those experiments have in reality 

 produced. 



The earliest place in which she finds pigment in all the 

 butterflies examined by her, is the wing itself, only later 

 on it appears in the wing-scales. And there she always 

 found in all the five species red just as well as yellow 

 pigment, the most red pigment in the species that still 

 presents the most of it in its full-grown state, Thais Po- 

 ly xena Schiff., pretty much in both Vanessae, least in both 

 Papilios, being also in a full-grown state the lightest co- 

 loured of these butterflies, thus — as Miss Newbegin does 

 not fail to observe — the red pigment being always pre- 

 sent in the oldest form. Next to yellow indeed, but that 

 this red must necessarily have grown out of that yellow 



1) Perhaps also on white, even when this has hecorae the general colour. If 

 80, black in some species (as Pieris brassicae L.) might be not, as I used to 

 think, a remains of an earlier black, but, indeed, a newly appearing colour 

 which would explain the results of the ontogenetical investigation. 



Notes from the Leyclen M.useum, Vol. X.:X.II. 



