426 BRITISH LEPIDOPTEEA. 



An intermediate form, taken at the same place, showed that the middle 

 streak was formed of 8 + 5, by not being straight on its upper margin, 

 and by the presence of a deep indentation between the positions of 8 

 and 5. The median nervure, too, is dusted with red, so that the 

 middle streak (3 + 5) is united to the lowest one (2 + 4). This 

 specimen, Speyer mentions, has a very broad black border, reaching to 

 the base of the inner margin of the hind-wings, as well as the inner 

 marginal, the median, and two other nervures distinctly blackened. 

 These, he says, are the only specimens of this kind he had come across 

 in A. trifolii, although the ordinary blotched forms were commoner 

 with him than the spotted forms. 



With regard to the normal variation of A. trifolii, Speyer's remarks 

 agree with the generally observed facts. Starting from the five-spotted 

 form, he shows that the blotching takes place as follows : (1) The union 

 of the basal spots, owing to the dividing nervure, becoming red. 

 (2) The middle pair become united (Esp., Die Schmett., pi. xxxiv., 

 fig. 5). (8a) The red spreads longitudinally, the basal pair giving 

 out a long-pointed streak, which becomes merged into a similar 

 enlargement which stretches towards it from the middle pair. (36) 

 More rarely the upper part of the middle spot is united with 5 by a 

 narrow bridge, whilst the basal pair is still separate from the middle pair 

 (ab. glycirrhizae, Hb.). (4) Lastly, 5 joins with 3 + 4, at first by a 

 narrow bridge, then broadening, until at last the spots comprise a 

 large irregular longitudinal blotch, with two shallow broad depressions 

 on the inner marginal side, which indicate the original divisions of 

 the spots (ab. confluens, Stdgr.). The basal pair of spots sometimes 

 remain separate after the blotching between the other spots has com- 

 menced. Speyer further points out how remarkable it is that both 

 types of blotching that occur in the Anthrocerids should occur in this 

 one species: (1) The blotching due to the junction of the pairs of 

 spots by longitudinal streaks (ab. minoides). (2) The union of the 

 spots into true wedge-shaped marks (ab. trivittata). 



Eef erring to the blotching of A. lonicerae, we find that Speyer has 

 observed a distinction in the mode of formation compared with that 

 in A. trifolii. He observes, that when spots 3, 4 and 5 are united in the 

 former species, they form a large irregular rhomboidal red blotch, whose 

 point (spot 5) is more extended and nearer to the apex than in A. trifolii. 

 Compared with A. trifolii, blotched specimens of A. lonicerae are rare. 

 Treitschke (Die Schmett. von Europa, x., p. 105) says that he had never 

 seen A. lonicerae with confluent spots. Herrich-Schiiffer (8yst. 

 Bearb., ii., p. 36) says : " Spots 3, 4 and 5 are never joined." Most 

 of the British blotched specimens of A. lonicerae are reputed to come 

 from the neighbourhood of Coventry. Occasional specimens have also 

 come from York and the neighbourhood of Strood. 



The development of peculiar and striking congenital aberrations 

 occasionally takes place in this group. The substitution of an extra wing 

 in the place of the left hind leg, in a specimen of A. filipendulae, bred 

 from a cocoon found at Cambridge by Richardson, in 1877, is very 

 interesting. The specimen is a male, of the ordinary colour and 

 markings, the extra wing resembling an ordinary hind-wing oi this 

 species in shape and appearance, but is much smaller, being 3'" in 

 length, and 2'" in breadth, as compared with the ordinary hind-wing 

 in the same specimen, which is 4|'" long and 2^'" broad. The extra 



