80 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



altogether the idea which I once entertained, that their 

 respective tints were adapted, for the purpose of self- 

 protection and disguise, to the particular colour of the soil 

 that they inhabited. Notwithstanding, there is no ground, I 

 should imagine, for supposing that the discrepancy of their 

 hues constitutes them two distinct species, inasmuch as we 

 possess a similar instance of various colouring in the Heli- 

 conius Doris, of the Amazon region, where var. A has the 

 stripes on the lower wings of a bright brick-red, and var. b of 

 a slaty blue. I may remark that the upper wings of both 

 varieties are of very different shades, in the case of several 

 specimens that I observed and captured, being sometimes of 

 a uniform dark hue, occasionally variously mottled, and 

 others, again, indistinguishable in colour from the dust of the 

 road on which they were settled: a familiar instance in point, 

 I may observe, is furnished by the numerous tints of the 

 upper wings of our own common yellow underwing (Pronuba). 

 O. Germanica presents the same number of different tints of 

 upper wing, as far as I am aware, in red and blue varieties 

 alike, nor is there any mark in the said wings whereby one may 

 determine which of the two it is, until the insect is disturbed, 

 and flies upwards from its resting-place. However, it may be 

 noteworthy to add, with regard to the specimens in my own 

 collection, that a uniform dark tint is the most frequent form 

 of the upper wing of the red variety, whereas that of the blue 

 is more often variously mottled. 1 myself possess two speci- 

 mens of the red variety having the upper wings mottled, but 

 none of the blue that, in this respect, are dark. But it 

 is very likely that a series of this same insect in another 

 cabinet may tell a widely different tale, in reference to the 

 above particulars. I have now only one more point to notice, 

 namely, that in all my specimens of the red variety tlie black 

 band, which borders the red in the lower wings, extends to 

 the extreme margin of the same, whereas in the blue, without 

 exception, beyond the same black band, there is always " a 

 transparent piece of network." I subjoin a list of localities, 

 where I have noticed both varieties of this insect: — Black 

 Forest, Baden Baden, August, 1857, only blue variety. 

 Mount Pilate, October, 1865, only red variety. Pontresina, 

 September, 1872, only red variety. Road to Roseg Glacier, 

 August, 1872, only red variety. Geneva, August, 1872, a ievf 



