NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 295 



Mr. A. M. Montgomery, of Ealing, has also obtained this extra- 

 spotted form of the species this year. He writes : — " In a small brood 

 of P. rapce (from ova deposited in captivity) three females out of 

 twenty-two examples of that sex have a small cluster of black scales 

 between veins 3 and 4. Two males out of sixteen in the same brood 

 have traces of an additional spot placed below the usual black spot 

 on fore wings. All the specimens emerged between August 18th 

 and 25th." 



Previous to receiving specimens from Mr. Sabine, I had not noticed 

 this extra spot on the hind wings of P. rapa, but I had seen it in 

 females of the summer brood of both English and Irish P. napi ; also 

 in females of the allied P. extensa var. eurydice and P. melete var. 

 mandarina, both from China. In one or two examples of the latter, 

 which seem to be exceptional instances, the outer area of hind wings 

 has a more or less complete broad black or fuscous border, and it 

 occurs to me that the black spot between veins 3 and 4 is probably a 

 remnant of this border in the case of mandarina. Possibly the other 

 species also had, in some ancient stage of their development, hind 

 wings banded or bordered with black, and the black spots between 

 veins 3 and 4 are vestiges of such bands or borders. — E. S. 



Aberration of Epinephele tithonus. — Mr. G. W. Oldfield has sent 

 for examination the variety of E. tithonus described by him in the ' Ento- 

 mologist ' for 1878 (xi. p. 228), as he considered that it agreed with the 

 aberrant example of this species figured ante, p. 253. It differs, how- 

 ever, from Mr. Spindler's specimen in the ground colour being pale 

 brownish buff and not pinkish ochreous ; the black ring of apical 

 ocellus on the fore wing is present in Mr. Oldfield's insect, but absent 

 in the Luggershall example. At the first October meeting of the 

 South London Entomological and Natural History Society, Mr. Mont- 

 gomery exhibited an aberrant example of E. tithonus which appeared 

 to me to be almost identical with Mr. Oldfield's variety. A some- 

 what similar form of Epinephele (Satyrus) ianira is figured Entom xi. 

 p. 1.— R. S. 



Aberration of Vanessa urtic^. — In two specimens of V. urticce, 

 bred by Mr. Sabine, the three blue marks nearest the apex of fore 

 wings are ray-like in character, and extend inwards along the nervules 

 almost or quite to the edge of the black marginal border. — E. S. 



Aberration of Smerinthus tili^e. — From a larva found at North- 

 ampton an example of this insect was bred in which the broad central 

 band on the fore wings is reduced to a small oblong spot. The outer 

 margins are also much suffused with reddish. — A. D. Imms ; " Lint- 

 hurst," Oxford Road, Moseley, Worcestershire, Oct. 1897. 



[The central band of fore wings is usually more or less interrupted 

 about the middle, the lower portion is often absent, and less frequently 

 the upper portion also ; but all gradations between the complete band 

 and its entire absence occur. An interesting specimen is figured 

 (Entom. xxvii. p. 50) in which there is no trace of the band on the 

 left fore wing, while on the right fore wing the band is merely repre- 

 sented by a spot at the outer end of the discal cell. — Ed.] 



Gynandrous Example of Dicranura bifida. — In this specimen, 



