859 



colour, spared out between tliem. To assign a special character to 

 part of the design is a matter of view or impression. Now examining 

 the wings of those Hepialids that show the highest regularity in 

 their markings, (e.g. species of the genue Charnyia), with an im- 

 partial eye, we find that not the lighter 0-spots, but quite on the 

 contrary the darker X-spots make the impression of being independent 

 positive elements of the design, between which the first mentioned 

 appear as areas of a ground colour. Especially strikingly this is 

 shown by the male of Ch. minibilis, where in contrast to the female, 

 the X-spots have grown into larger and more complicated markings, 

 which I have compared to perforated cotton-plugs. Yet it may be 

 stated, that likewise in the female those X-spots which belong to 

 the secondary pattern, possess a well-pronounced independent 

 character, as their colour in comparison to those of the primary ones 

 has increased in deepness, hue and lustre. Though in a lesser degree, 

 the same may be said of the 0-spots on either side of those modified 

 secondary X-spots. 



Furthermore we see in the variety chvysomallon of Ch. ramsayi 

 the spots of the primary pattern all melted together into a smooth 

 ground, on which those of the secondary one stand out with great 

 distinctness, these latter thereby forming a new pattern that pos- 

 sesses a great deal of similarity to the so called primary pattern of 

 Arctiids. This compai'ison therefore gives a certain amount of 

 probability to the supposition that the background on which the 

 Arctiid pattern stands out, owes its origin to the coalescence of a 

 number of separate spots, this ground-colour-formation being nothing 

 more than a special case of self-coloration. 



My views seem to me to find a support in the conditions of the 

 colourpattern in the family of Hypsidae, so nearly alien to the 

 Arctiids that many Lepidopterologists consider it as a subfamily of 

 this latter group. Species of the genus Ayape belonging to this 

 subfamily show a number of dark spots along the proximal part of 

 the frontmargin of the forewings, at regular distances of each other. 

 Supposing these spots to occur along the whole length of the margin, 

 their number would exceed a dozen, so they might perhaps be 

 considered as renmants of the primary pattern. 



No less remarkable and instructive is the complete design, in 

 the female of Ayape o^'ó/c^/Zar/.?, where the wing-field of both fore- and 

 hindwing is divided by the colour design into two absolutely dif- 

 ferent parts. In this instance the upper- and underside are almost 

 though not wholy alike, the first is somewhat more differentiated, 

 the latter here and there is made diffuse by partial melanism. Com- 



