58 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



intentional migration to the islands ? If our theory, however, 

 be an incorrect one, as it may be, we should indeed be glad 

 if some one would lend a helping hand to solve this question 

 of a migration of tiny butterflies from the American main to 

 those small and remote isles, 600 miles away over the rolling 

 waters of the trackless deep. 



J. Matthew Jones. 



Halifax, N.S., November 15, 1875. 



Description of some Varieties of Vanessa lo, dc, probably 

 caused by starvitiy the Larvce. By H. Ramsay Cox, 

 Esq., F.L.S. 



So much has been said on " varieties " being produced by 

 starvation that some readers who have not had personal expe- 

 rience in the subject may be a litlle interested in a short 

 description of the " varieties" (so-called) that I lately bred of 

 some of the Vanessas, caused, 1 believe, by starvation, I should 

 say that the shortness of fare the poor larvae were subjected 

 to was quite unintentional. 



We captured in the New Forest a number of half-grown 

 larva3 of Vanessa lo, which were carefully fed for a few 

 days ; but owing to my boy's neglect, and to my being busy 

 with the net, they were left several days without food ; all 

 dead leaves and stalks had been devoured. They were a 

 very long time changing, and many fastened themselves lo 

 the. bottom of the cage, as if too weak to spin up on the top or 

 sides, in the ordinary manner. Veryfeiv died either in the 

 larval or pupal state. 



Nearly all the images were of course rather small ; they 

 varied much in the intensity of their colouring, and two spe- 

 cimens are very singularly marked. In one, the yellow costal 

 spot is only represented by a very small white mark: there is 

 scarcely any yellow in the ocellus, a large part of which is 

 filled up with black, the usual chocolate patch in it is also 

 black. The chocolate ground colour is also darker than 

 usual. In the hind wing the ocellus contains only two small 

 round violet spots. The other specimen is similarly marked, 

 except in the hind wings, in which there is no ocellus at all 

 of the ordinary character, but merely an irregularly shaped 



