THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 41.] MAY, MDCCCLXVII. [Price 6d. 



Variation in Lepidoptera. By C. S. Geegson, Esq. 

 (Continued from page 213). 



Vanessa Urticae. I said, in the beginning of this paper, 

 that this abundant species was generally constant in its 

 characters ; and were I to attempt to describe all the aber- 

 rations of it in ray collection after so saying, without explain- 

 ing that my specimens were the result of many years' careful 

 examination of very many thousands of bred and captured 

 specimens, it might seem paradoxical how so many strange 

 forms could be in one cabinet, and it yet be a constant 

 species. No word-painting of mine can give an adequate idea 

 of the singularity of two or three of them. From thirty-two 

 specimens in my collection, few of which are typical in their 

 characters, I will try to give the peculiarities of the most 

 striking. Four are of great expanse, measuring above two 

 inches and a quarter, and are particularly bright-coloured ; 

 captured near Preston. One large, dark, the inner marginal 

 blotch large, oval, and the two ordinary spots fairly enclosed 

 within dark nerval lines ; these dark lines are well defined 

 upon all the lower nerves of the superior wings, and are also 

 seen upon the lower nerves of the inferior wings ; the ordi- 

 nary blue marginal spots die out below the discoidal nerves 

 in the superior wings, leaving a well-defined dark marginal 

 striga, through which the dark nerval lines pass, and are well 

 developed through the cilia ; the latter is dark at the apex of 

 the wing, but grows lighter towards the internal angle : the 

 blue spots are well represented upon the under wings. Next 

 to this is an ordinary-sized specimen, the dark markings in 

 which are so generally small that the ground colour (which is 

 light bright orange-yellow) predominates over a greater space 

 than usual, and thus gives the specimen a bright and light 

 character not often seen ; the outer margin to cilia dark, and 

 below that is another, the ordinary dark markings being 

 Dormal, the ground colour even brighter than the last and 

 VOL. III. T 



