BEDROCK 



twenty-four cenea females and three hippocoon females from the 

 eggs laid by a female parent of the cenea form which he captured 

 in copula with a male merope. The still more wonderful family 

 illustrated on Plate I. was bred by him in 1906 from a hippocoon 

 form of female (Fig. 6). Of the twenty-eight offspring reared from 

 her eggs, fourteen were males (Fig. 1), three were hippocoon females 

 (Fig. 7) like the parent, three were trophonius females (Fig. 8), three 

 were cenea females with white spots in the fore wing (Fig. 9), and 

 five were cenea females with one or more of the spots yellowish 

 (Fig. 10). The Hope Collection at Oxford now possesses seven 

 families, bred between 1902 and 1910 by Mr. Leigh, from females 

 captured in the neighbourhood of Durban — twice from cenea, twice 

 from hippocoon, and three times from trophonius. A very striking 

 fact was the predominance of cenea in the offspring of all seven parents. 

 One hippocoon and one trophonius produced nothing but cenea. The 

 whole of the offspring added together give ninety-eight males, 

 ninety-one cenea females, nine hippocoon, eight trophonius, and two 

 of a new female form, leighi, both of which appeared in the last 

 family bred in 1910 from a trophonius female. This remarkable 

 family also contained twenty-five males, twenty-two cenea females, 

 two hippocoon, and four trophonius. I know of only a single Natal 

 family of P. dardanus in which cenea is not the dominant female 

 form — a brood, reared by Miss Fountaine from the eggs of trophonius, 

 with nineteen females of the same form as the parent and two of 

 the cenea form. Specimens strictly intermediate between the 

 female forms have not occurred in any family that I have seen, 

 but slight indications of transition between cenea and the other 

 females are not uncommon. The parental form may apparently 

 exert an influence on the colour of offspring belonging to a different 

 form. Thus the hind wing patch of some of the cenea offspring is 

 apt to be deeper in tint when the female parent was trophonius with 

 its rich fulvous markings, than when they have been bred from the 

 white-marked hippocoon. 



The facts summarised above are consistent with, and indeed 

 strongly suggest, a Mendelian interpretation of the hereditary 

 relationships, but the complete and detailed proof would be very 

 difficult to obtain because of the unknown tendencies borne by the 

 male. This difficulty could probably be overcome by bringing eggs, 



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