SOME ABEERATIONS IN THE GENUS VANESSA. 819 



Lepidoptera made by a well-known German entomologist, and 

 recently purchased by Mr. Leech. It has been ascertained that 

 the examples Mr. Leech has, and a number of others like fig. 7, 

 were bred by a boy in Germany who had secured a batch of 

 larvffi, none of the imagines produced being quite typical. 



A variety of F. io, bred from a larva found near Lea Bridge, 

 now in the collection of Mr. Bond, and figured in Entom.vi.p. 105, 

 is of the same form as that now figured (fig. 7), but the white 

 spots on primaries are more clearly defined. 



Goossens records (Bull. Soc. Ent. France [5], v., cxlix.), a 

 variety of V. io which from his description appears to be very 

 similar to fig. 7, and this is probably ab. dy ophthalmic a, Garbini 

 (Bull. Soc. Pad. i. 19, 20), or var. exocidata, Weymes (J. B. Ver. 

 Elberf. v. 58), but I have not had an opportunity of seeing the 

 descriptions of either of these. 



Mr. Marsh, from larvse obtained at Grange, bred two speci- 

 mens of V. io which were semi-transparent, due to absence of the 

 normal reddish-brown scales. In my earliest days of collecting 

 I reared a whole brood of such varieties, and turned them all 

 adrift because they did not come up to my idea of what the 

 " peacock butterfly " should be. I need hardly say that in those 

 days I had no knowledge whatever of variation, and but little of 

 typical forms. Coleman was then the only book on Entomology 

 in my possession, or which I even knew of. I may add that I 

 have the work now, and the date is 1863. 



Var. ioides, Ochs. Schmett. Eur. 1. i. p. 109 (1807). This is 

 only a dwarfed form which occasionally occurs in nature, but not 

 confined to any particular country or district. Bernard considers 

 that this form is produced from larvae which have fed on the 

 flowers instead of the leaves of nettles (Ent. Nachr. ix. pp. 26, 

 27), but Sequers is of opinion that the small size of ioides is the 

 result of a starved condition of the larva, and this agrees with 

 my own observations, for I have often produced the form by 

 simply putting larvae, after their final moult, on short commons. 

 As far as I know small examples of most species may be obtained 

 by adopting the same plan. 



Var. sardoa, Stand., is larger in size and more fulvous in 

 colour than the type ; it occurs in Sardinia. 



Vanessa antiopa, Linn., var. hygicea, Heyd. {■= Untnerii, Fitch, 

 PI. VIII. , fig. 4, modification. 

 In his ' Butterflies of New England ' Maynard gives a figure 

 of this aberration, and makes some observations on it and the 

 type which it may be of interest to quote here. He says : — 

 " This species is, as a rule, quite uniform in coloration : spring 

 specimens which have hybernated are, however, much paler, and 

 sometimes a summer specimen is quite light on the border. The 



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