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XXV. Observations on some remarkable Varieties of Sterrha 
sacraria, Linn., with general Notes on Variation in 
Lepidoptera. By R. M‘Lacatan, F.L.S. 
[Read 4th December, 1865. ] 
Ar the last Meeting of this Society (see Journal of Proceedings, 
6 Nov. 1865, p. 124), I exhibited some bred specimens of Sterrha 
sacraria, showing an extraordinary amount of variation. It has 
been strongly urged upon me that I should not allow these ex- 
amples to be distributed without leaving a suitable record of their 
peculiarities, and I have therefore drawn up the following notes, 
and have taken advantage of the occasion to make a few remarks 
on variation in Lepidoptera generally, especially in the British 
species. 
With respect to §. sacraria, I will first repeat what has been 
already recorded, viz., that on the 19th of last August, my nephew, 
Mr. W. J. Wilson, when walking with me in a lane near Worthing 
in Sussex, captured a damaged female of this insect which imme- 
diately commenced depositing eggs ; but she laid only seven, and 
I imagine that she had previously almost exhausted her stock, as 
her abdomen was thin and collapsed. This female example 
(Pl. XXIII. fig. 1) differed in nowise from the ordinary typical 
form and size of the species (expanse of wings 11 lines), The 
eggs I at once sent off to my friend the Rev. John Hellins, chap- 
lain of the county prison at Exeter, so well known for his success 
and skill in breeding Lepidoptera. One egg unfortunately was 
destroyed in transit, but the remaining six all hatched on the 29th 
of the same month. As the larva and its usual food-plants were 
quite unknown (excepting from an unpublished figure by Herr 
Carl Plétz of Greifswald, who attaches it to a species of Chamo- 
mile), Mr. Hellins, as is his usual custom with all larvee of Geo- 
metride with whose food be is unacquainted, offered the young 
larvee Polygonum aviculare, and they at once commenced feeding 
on that plant, and thrived well. On the 19th of September one 
larva commenced spinning, and by the 30th of that month all had 
changed to pupae. On the 15th of October the first imago, a 
female, emerged ; two other females came out on the 17th, and a 
fourth on the 19th; this was kept alive with the idea of pairing 
her, but she died on the 25th, just before the fifth example, a male, 
