NYMPHALID/E. 197 



rule being in a few cases in which a faint yellowish i-ing 

 shows itself round each black dot. It is esjoecially worthy of 

 notice that in this species the alterations in colour are local 

 or climatal rather than casual, the tyiDical fulvous forms 

 being more especially found in warm, sheltered districts in 

 the south and south-east of England, while those in which 

 certain series of interspaces become yellowish are character- 

 istic of the western region, becoming pronounced and brilliant 

 in South Wales. In the more north-western districts the 

 same occurs, but with the addition of an increase in dark 

 colouring, the basal dark area becoming enlarged, and the 

 nervures and cross-bands broader black ; and this phase of 

 variation continues, becoming at times somewhat intensified, 

 through the northern counties of England and some parts of 

 Scotland. Mr. J. R. Wellman has some from Carlisle, in which 

 the basal half of the hind wings is almost wholly black, except 

 a small straw-coloured spot or two before the middle. In Ire- 

 land a still greater divergence takes place, and a large portion 

 of the upper surface is blackened from the expansion of the 

 black markings and consequent circumscription of the yellow 

 and fulvous interspaces, some of which are, indeed, replaced 

 by black. Others, in which the dark markings are similarly 

 black, have lai'ge yellow and red interspaces. These Irish forms 

 are consequently extremely striking. Another divergence, on 

 somewhat similar lines, takes place in some parts of the 

 Midlands, as in Staffordshire, whence larva; have been obtained 

 by Mr. J. A. Clark, from which numerous specimens were 

 reared of a rich, full, red fulvous, with very broad, coarse- 

 looking, black, transverse stripes, and many of the usually 

 fulvous interspaces filled up with black ; on the other hand, 

 some of these have a broad pale-yellow central band. All 

 those enumerated may be looked upon in some degree as 

 specialised local forms, yet all, or nearly all, are liable to 

 revert, more or less, towards the other varieties, or to produce 

 special developments of their own. In Pembrokeshire, for 

 instance, an aberrant form, in which one of the black 



