96 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



them) developed a more or less defined central fascia in bold out- 

 lines, and the oblique row of spots was almost wanting. They 

 were sufficiently striking to induce me to carry on the brood yet 

 another year ; so a strongly-marked pair were selected, and the 

 brood from them carefully fed up on Sambucus nigra, with the 

 result that during May, 1893, I bred a very long series (several 

 hundred), and the picked examples of that brood are indeed a 

 most striking lot ; the fascia-like lines are considerably increased, 

 so that the fascia is clearly and boldly shown on all four wings ; 

 and for this most striking type I propose the name of var. 

 fasciata. In many of the specimens this fascia line is in the 

 distinct form of the mark of a note of interrogation, and forms a 

 most charming variety. The whole brood was very robust, large 

 in size, and rich in colour, the males being of a deep ochreous- 

 yellow ground colour, the female nearly white. Fully 50 per cent, 

 of this brood came out quite the pale and typical southern form ! 

 and from this they ranged up to the grand var. fasciata. A very 

 fine female of this form copulated with a male var. radiata 

 = zatima, and the result of that pairing, now in the pupa state, 

 is anxiously awaited. 



In June, 1892, Mr. Harrison, of Barnsley, most kindly sent 

 me a small batch of ova from a pairing of two specimens of var. 

 radiata, Curtis = zatima; and these larvae were fed up on elder, 

 at the same time as the former brood referred to as fasciata, — of 

 course kept quite distinct. No difference could be discerned be- 

 tween the two broods of larvae. Possibly the radiata form may, 

 on the whole, have been a trifle darker, but any way the darkest 

 fasciata a long way overlapped the palest radiata : you could not 

 possibly pick them out if by chance they had become mixed. 



From these 1892 larvae I bred twenty- seven examples during 

 April and early May, 1893, all true radiata. Two good forms of 

 these were paired, and a large brood reared. During July, 

 August, and September a long series of grand imagines emerged, 

 every one of the radiata type ; not a single one relapsed into the 

 normal luhricipeda form, although a few ran extremely pale ; one 

 particularly had the under wing very closely approaching my var. 

 fasciata, but it was not quite identical. I should mention that 

 many of this brood still remain as pupae. That radiata is strictly 

 only a form of luhricipeda, is to my mind proved by the ready 

 crossing of the two forms, and by the fertility being well kept up 

 in these crossed results. The rule is for hybrids or mules to lose 

 their fertility ; that being so, it is very strong evidence that — 

 divergent as the two extremes may be — still they are only forms of 

 one very variable species. 



Mr. G. T. Porritt, in his List of Yorkshire Lepidoptera, 

 speaks of York city producing the var. radiata ; this he has since 

 corrected (Entom. xxvi. 296), and it now appears that the York 

 form differs considerably from true radiata. In the former the 



