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pait in both the Scandinavian and Finnish mythologies. 



Mr. White stated that he had during the last four or five years 

 given some attentio)i to the caterpillars of the Sphingidtc, and was 

 therefore able to corroborate many of the minute and important 

 points Mr. Poulton had so faithfully described respecting the 

 characters of these larvae. The pair of red tubercles upon the 

 head of the young Smerinthns oceUatus he had frequently noticed 

 in S. tilicc, and it sometimes continues far on in the life of the 

 species. With regard to the spotted variety of the Smerhithidce, 

 he stated that he had collected a number of them, including two 

 specimens of 8. jwpull of the pale bluish white form, having the 

 spots — a complete double row in each instance — of a pale rosy- 

 pink colour. He added that he had made an analysis of a series 

 of these varieties, and came to an opposite conclusion to that 

 arrived at by Mr. Poulton. He found, in accordance with what 

 Prof. Meldola had described, that the spots appeared chiefly in the 

 later stages of the larvae, and also that they had a regular order of 

 development upon the segments, thereby evidencing the character 

 to be newly acquired, and not the recurrence to an earlier 

 ancestral form. In one instance, however, he observed single spots, 

 which were very minute dots, during the third stage, and they 

 might occasionally appear even earlier ; but, as a rule, they 

 increased in intensity rather than diminished with the growth of 

 the caterpillar, and were most strongly pronounced in the last 

 stage, He fully endorsed what Mr. Poulton had said respecting 

 the abnormal stripes, as they practically were, which occasionally 

 occur on S. tilm, and he possessed in his collection two fine 

 examples of this remarkable variation. He naentioned that in 

 one blown specimen which he had there was an additional reddish 

 purple stripe upon the 8th abdominal segment partially developed, 

 and which, being newly acquired, has no white stripe below it, 

 thus bearing out Mr. Poulton's explanation of the stripes of A. 

 atropos. This specimen had the markings throughout very 

 strongly pronounced, and had an additional character, namely, 

 two red spots upon the top of the 1st thoracic segment. There 

 is also another fact which he had observed in several specimens, 

 which was, that the purplish stripes of S. Ugustrl were really 

 composed of two stripes ; there was first the reddish purple stripe, 

 and on closer inspection another darker brownish purple stripe 

 was to be seen overlying the lower portion of this lighter stripe ; 



D 



