ON NEW SPILOSOMA HYBEIDS. 107 



majority of these pupae perished through the awkward handling 

 of my servant during my bimonthly absence ; from the few 

 rescued only two pairs of hybrid crassa resulted (those figured) ; 

 as well as a few pairs of hybrid viertli ,■ of the latter the four 

 males and three females figured are the most diverse. 



A description of these two hybrids will be unnecessary, on 

 account of the illustrations, in which the patterns, black spots 

 and stripes, are most accurately reproduced. Also the colour- 

 ing, especially the more or less lighter grey of the males (the 

 females are about as white as the females of mendica), stands 

 out clearly in the illustrations. The darkest are the hybrid 

 crassa males, which are dark grey on the anterior wings like 

 some of the lighter sordida males, while their posterior wings 

 are not so unicolorously dark, almost grey-black, but somewhat 

 mixed with lighter grey. Of the hybrid viertli males, fig. 5 is 

 the darkest, being about as dark as the male of mendica usually is, 

 while the male portrayed in fig. 8 is the lightest, with yellow- 

 grey anterior wings, which are about as light (but more yellowish) 

 as the lightest examples of hybr. standfussi. The posterior 

 wings of the male portrayed in fig. 7 are extraordinarily darkly 

 striped. 



I call attention here, further, to the fact that the ovaries of 

 these hybrid females appear to be quite normally developed. 

 One of these females I crossed with a male of the var. rustica ; 

 it laid 193 eggs, that is to say, as much (or as many) as was 

 laid on an average by the mendica or sordida females. Each of 

 these eggs produced a healthy larva, which, at the present time 

 (middle of June), after precisely seventeen days, are already on 

 the verge of the last skin-casting. 



Upon the larvae of these hybrids I noted the following : — 

 Before the first skin-change, the larva (here in Rumania) of 

 mendica var. rustica has a light yellow head-shield and light 

 yellow fore feet ; its body has a bright grey-greenish, almost 

 translucent colouring. The sordida larva is much darker grey, 

 and has a black head-shield and black fore feet. The hybrid 

 larvae occupy an intermediate position between the two ; their 

 body is light grey, their fore feet and the head-shield are reddish 

 brown. After the first and second skin-changes, the colouring 

 of the body becomes darker grey, that of the fore feet and head- 

 shield brown ; on the back and on the sides (always one) appear 

 somewhat obliterated, brighter longitudinal lines, which are 

 much more distinctly yellow-brown-bordered on the ninth 

 segment. 



After the third skin-change the hybrid larva (crassa as well 

 as viertli) copy the larva of sordida accurately in the arrange- 

 ment of the designs ; they are, however, more brightly coloured. 

 The dorsal stripes and the two lateral stripes are sharply marked, 

 bordered with orange-yellow ; the two last segments are reddish 



