( xxxii ) 



Prof. Poulton said that variation in the submarginal red 

 spots and in the white patch and the adjacent red markings 

 on the hind-wing of the mimetic polytes female made it a 

 favourable example for the study of the hereditary trans- 

 mission of very small characters and for testing whether 

 such transmission was Mendelian. With this object he had 

 analysed Dr. Hanitsch's material and the result showed 

 that there were numbers of small characters which might 

 be selected for breeding experiments. 



Considering first the 9 females captured Oct. -Dec, 1916, 

 there was great variation in the size of the white patch in 

 the hind-wing, but it was generally large and well developed 

 in all its parts, viz. the mark in the cell and those in the four 

 areas from 2 to 5. The white marking in area 2 was always 

 more or less replaced by red and that in area 5 very variable 

 in size. The white marking in the cell was usually large, but 

 very small in the female captured Dec. 4, and absent from 

 that captured Nov. 27, so that this latter specimen belonged 

 to the form stichius, Hlibn., the first that had appeared among 

 the specimens sent by Dr. Hanitsch from Singapore. The 

 female of Dec. 2 combined a large white marking in the cell 

 with a mere trace in area 5 and a small remnant near the cell, 

 all the rest being replaced by red, in area 2. The white 

 marks in areas 3 and 4 of this specimen were of moderate 

 size, the outer end of the former being capped by a red mark- 

 ing half as long as the white. This red section did not here 

 appear to replace the white, but to be added to it, for there 

 was no gradual transition as in area 2, but both white and 

 red sections ended abruptly and were separated by a trace 

 of ground-colour, in the form of a thin curved black line. 

 The independent variation of the elements of the white patch 

 was very evident, especially that in the cell as compared 

 with those in areas 2-5. Thus, when the females were arranged 

 according to the size of the mark in the cell from its largest 

 down to its disappearance in the stichius form, the sizes of 

 the marks in the areas outside the cell by no means followed 

 the same arrangement ; for they remained of full size even in 

 the stichius form. 



The combination of small submarginal red spots above 



