526 Mr. Louis B. Prout on Xanthorho'e fcmignta 



German entomologist Fuchs, who — on account of this 

 " epigonic " evidence — recently proposed to erect the form 

 as a distinct species under the name of eximiata {fide 

 R. Plingeler). The var, stupida of Alpheraky, from 

 Central Asia (No. 3370«, in Staudinger's "Catalog") is 

 also invariably black-banded, so far as I have been able to 

 learn ; and a series which I have, through the kindness of 

 Mr. F. H. Wolley Dod, received from Calgary, Alberta, 

 shows the same stability of colour. The very few recorded 

 cases of breeding purple examples among broods raised 

 from wild black females may therefore pretty safely be 

 taken as indicating mongrel origin — " hybrids " in the 

 Mendelian sense — the male parent being assumed to have 

 been purple-banded. 



I know of no locality where the purple form entirely 

 ousts the black, but I understand from Dr. R. T. Cassal 

 that the first-named is the more frequent in the Isle of 

 Man. Further, wild purple specimens have nearly always 

 yielded a percentage of black in the progeny. The most 

 important exception known to me was a considerable 

 brood reared by my friend Herr Rudolf Plingeler, at 

 Aachen. 



Coming now to the heredity experiments, I may say 

 that the whole of the material which is of any significance 

 for present purposes was obtained from a single locality, 

 Sandown, Isle of Wight, where both forms (purple and 

 black) occur together, with a considerable preponderance 

 of the black. I have reared isolated broods from other 

 British localities, which have merely tended to confirm 

 the general results. 



From various causes, set forth in my earlier paper, I 

 was unable to work as systematically as I could have 

 wished. The resistance of this species to any continuous 

 inbreeding is more pronounced than in any other case 

 Avhich has come under my notice, and many attempted 

 crossings failed utterly, while many others yielded so few 

 specimens as to be practically valueless for statistical 

 purposes. I shall, in consequence, almost confine con- 

 sideration to the larger broods, referring those who desire 

 more detailed information of the rest to the afore- 

 mentioned "Transactions of the City of London Entomo- 

 logical Society." 



Black x Black. — Taking these first, as I have called 

 them " dominant," I find there are four batches to be 



