THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 269 



of the 'Entomologist' are illustrated either by pen or pencil, — 

 sometimes both, — with so-called "varieties" of our native 

 Lepidoptera, and in almost every instance the specimens 

 described differ from the normal type of the species, either in 

 the distribution of colours, or in intensity of shade or mark- 

 ings. Occasionally we read of dwarf specimens, or, on the 

 other hand, specimens of gigantic proportions, but we seldom 

 see any account of a deformed individual ; and by deformities 

 I do not mean the poor, crippled creatures we sometimes get 

 in our rearing-cages, — although perhaps 'they should claim 

 the appellation, " par excellence," — but those in which one 

 particular limb, although fully developed, differs from the 

 corresponding one. That such deformities do occur we are 

 all well aware ; I think they are sometimes not totally unin- 

 teresting to those who really love insects for their own sake. 

 Last summer 1 and a friend were searching for Acidalia 

 straminala, and whilst near a fir-wood a moth attracted my 

 attention by its peculiar flight. I caught and boxed it, to 

 find it was a specimen of Ellopia fasciaria, with one of its 

 hind wings about Jialf as large as the opposite one, although 

 this dwarfed limb is apparently fully developed, and has the 

 red bar across it similar to the other, but the wing being 

 shorter than usual the bar is naturally nearer the body ; 

 consequently the moth looks very one-sided now it is set. I 

 have yet a still more remarkable "deformity" in my cabinet 

 in a male of Colias Edusa. The specimen in question has 

 both fore wings narrow and rounded, almost reminding one 

 in form of the fore wings of Lilhosia quadra. Its colours are 

 not so bright as other specimens in my series, but the mark- 

 ings are similar; and on account of the wings being so much 

 narrower the black spot appears to be almost equidistant 

 from the costal and inner margins. Doubtless many readers 

 of this journal possess specimens equally interesting and 

 curious ; but, in nineteen-twentieths of the varieties described, 

 the variation is in colour, and not in form. This 1 almost 

 wonder at, since the acquisition of varieties is, and has been, 

 such a mania with collectors, and almost anything out of the 

 common course of nature is deemed a prize. — G. B. Corhin. 

 [I am rather pleased that any correspondent of the ' Ento- 

 mologist' should have observed, what is a fact, the general 

 absence from its pages of notices of deformity. 1 entirely 



