NOTE ON OVUM AND YOUNG LARVA OF SCOPARIA MURANA. 343 



gins (ab. cfriseomarginata, parallel to V. urticce ab. griseomargi- 

 nata), which look strikingly antio2)a- fovm.* 



No marginal markings in a " normal" tortoiseshell Vanessid 

 approach nearer to those in V. io ah.Jischeri than the markings 

 in female ichmtsa. 



Comparing, now, the ground colour of all the tortoiseshell 

 Vanessids, it becomes apparent that various shades of more or 

 less brilliant yellow-brown, sometimes orange or golden in tint, 

 are common to them all, including V. urticce and its related 

 varieties; but that V. urticce differs from all the other forms by its 

 marked tendency to develop a reddish and even a red ground colour 

 at slight inducement. Even the finest, most brilliant examples 

 oi xanthomelas from Japan (large) or from Switzerland (smaller), 

 which I have, are rich yellow-hmov^n, not re^Z-brown in colour, 

 and the same is the case with E. polychloros var. erythromelas 

 (Algiers). Comparison with reddish specimens of V. urticce (for 

 which I suggest the name var. igneaformis, as the extreme ab. 

 ignea, Rynr., is either extremely rare or unknown even in the 

 field) quickly dispels any possible doubt. I do not wish to imply, 

 however, that red forms are quite impossible in the other species 

 as exceptional aberrations, though I have so far not been able 

 to find any tendency to red in their ground colour. And it is 

 not without interest, perhaps, to note that the " brown " xantho- 

 melas seems facially related to the " brown " antiopa, much as 

 the " red " urticce is related to the " red " V. io. 



A NOTE ON THE OVUM AND YOUNG LAUVA OF 

 SCOPARIA MURANA. 



By Alfred Sigh, F.E.S. 



In July, 1909, Mr. South kindly handed me some ova of 

 Scoparia murana, laid by a moth he had taken at Bishop Auck- 

 land on the 15th of that month. They were laid in groups of 

 three to five and some singly, not very firmly attached. From 

 the manner in which some of the eggs were laid round a 

 puncture in the lid of the box, I should imagine that in nature 



"-'' The peculiar facies of Euvanessa antiopa, like that of V. io, is de- 

 veloped from the "tortoiseshell" facies, as was shown bv Prof. Standfussin 

 his 'Handbook of Palaearctic Macro-Lepidoptera,' with the help of an excel- 

 lent atavic aberration of antiopa (figured pi. vii. fig. 3), showing traces of the 

 median puncta on the fore wings, and of the orange-brown ground colour; 

 also the specimen exhibited a narroiv grey margin. The ground colour of 

 antiopa may be called a deep rich brown tinged with violet, that of io a rich 

 orange-brown tinged with red.. In Japan, V. io var. geisha, female, occurs 

 with a hroivn ground colour, tinged orange — probably an atavism — and in 

 America antiopa often exhibits a purely brown colour and a darkened mar- 

 gin, which also, perhaps, are atavic features. 



