208 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



either of these gentlemen point out in nature anything at all 

 compatible with Mr. South's suggestion ? I yield to no one in 

 my admiration of the theory of evolution, but this seems really 

 to be carrying it too far. I can understand a particular form 

 becoming so modified by its environment, as ultimately to 

 produce a distinct species; but to suppose that distinct species 

 like icarus and hellargus copulate freely together in nature, and 

 that their offspring fly only with the species of one parent (in 

 this case hellargus), seems more than improbable. Had Mr. 

 South suggested atavism, or a recurrence to the primitive type of 

 the group, the primitive type being probably icarus, I should 

 have agreed with him ; but to suppose that a species, once 

 developed as such, naturally intermixes freely with another has, 

 I venture to say, no parallel in nature. Mr. Sabine, after stating 

 that he believes them to be hybrids, knocks his own theory on 

 the head with the pertinent question, " but why not elsewhere 

 also ?" 



I think the suggestion that the variety " may have been in 

 existence at this spot prior to last season " amusing. Does Mr. 

 Sabine think that permanent local varieties, which are well 

 distributed, grow in some miraculous manner in one season ? 



My own opinion about the matter I have briefly stated. 

 Nothing that I know of in the localities seems to indicate why 

 some hellargus should be typical in colour whilst others are not. 

 We might, if wholesale hybridisation occurred, apply the principle 

 to all our " blues," and Mr. South has well pointed out how 

 variable in shade are icarus and corydon, as well as hellargus. 

 Icarus males are sometimes nearly as bright as typical hellargus, 

 sometimes purple-coloured. Corydon looks sometimes nearly 

 white ; in others the species has such a dark band that the blue 

 shade looks very difl'erent. In hellargus we have three shades : 

 (1) the bright brilliant blue, (2) a more purple-coloured but still 

 adonis -hlwQ., and (3) the lilac-coloured, called by Mr. Sabine the 

 pale variety. 



Mr. Sabine mentions another matter, the continuance of 

 Lycana corydon, and second emergence of L. hellargus, and 

 brings the testimony of two lads to bear out his point, to the 

 discomfiture of Mr. South and the " entomologists of much 

 experience." Mr. Sabine's boys have been butterfly-catching 

 now, as I believe, for seven years, a very good apprenticeship at 



