47 



they had been called "tasseled" scales. All our English whites, 

 together with the orange-tip, possessed these peculiar scales, and if 

 the great family of Pieridae, which included a vast number of con- 

 tinental and tropical forms, were examined, they would find the males 

 invariably possessed a tasseled scale, either of the form of our English 

 whites and orange-tip, or a modification of these, both as regards the 

 terminal fringe and the pedicle. He had had opportunities of examin- 

 ing a good many, but Mr. Watson had enumerated upwards of 200 

 English and foreign Pieridas examined by him, on which, in eveiy case, 

 the males, and the males alone, possessed the characteristic scale. 



As might be supposed, there were great diversities of size and 

 form, and which, from what had been said respecting the English 

 Pieridae, might doubtless be very useful in determining species. One 

 curious confirmation of the value of these characteristic scales Mr. 

 "Watson drew his attention to in 1868, viz., that two hitherto-believed 

 different species of Pieris turned out to be the male and female of the 

 same, the one having, and the other being without, the characteristic 

 scales. They were arranged in rows behind the other scales, as in the 

 " blues," but many being long and hair-like, they appeared only as 

 hairs in situ. 



The next English family to be noticed was that named Hipparchia : 

 the common meadow brown H. Janira had a scale brush-like, taper- 

 ing like the large white, but differing from it in the markings in the 

 ribbon-like portion, as well as having a pedicle similar to that possessed 

 by the " blues." Investigating this family, he found the same story 

 told throughout— a distinctive scale, ribbon-like, and tasseled on every 

 male of the family, but never a scale of such a character on the 

 females. 



In each of the families described there was generally a difference 

 of wing-markings between the males and females ; occasionally they 

 resembled each other, and some few insects had been found with the 

 wings on one side with the male markings, and on the other side with the 

 female markings. It would be very curious to find out if, with this 

 assumption of marking, they also on the male marked wings had this 

 undoubted sex distinction. 



There was only one other family of Enghsh butterflies possessing, 

 as far as he had been able to make out, a characteristic scale, and 

 that was the Argyji/iida; or Fritillaries, or, at least, those among them 



