428 



BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



wing similar in shape, colour and markings to the normal fore-wing 

 replaces the hind-wing. The specimen, therefore, has three normal fore- 

 wings, judged by markings, etc., and no hind- wing. The second wing 

 on the left side appears, so far as can be judged from the figure, to arise 

 from the metathorax and not to be a second mesothoracic wing. Later, 

 South noted (Ibid., p. 294) that the insect had only two pairs of legs, 

 (the mesothoracic), evidently, from the figure, being the missing pair. 

 Capper has a male A. lonicerae, bred by Hewett in 1888, from a cocoon 

 obtained near York, with the wings on the right side nearly normal (the 

 hind- wing is somewhat pointed), whilst on the left side, the hind-wing 

 is simply a duplicate of the fore-wing, being almost of equal length, of the 

 same blue-green colour, with crimson spots; the apex is slightly more 

 rounded, and the base of the costal margin more arched than in the fore- 

 wing. Oberthur describes and figures (Fa nation Lep., p. 53, pl.^'ii., fig. 

 123) a specimen of Anthrocera occitanica, in which the right hind-wing, in 

 place of being normally red as the left, is spotted exactly as the fore- 

 wing, the contour and neuration also agreeing with the latter. This 

 specimen belonged to Boisduval, who, in 1853, communicated to the 

 Ent. Soc. de France, the fact that it was bred by Daube, from a larva 

 that he had captured. 



Barrett (Lep., ii., p. 128) alludes to specimens of A. trifolii, found 

 by Christy in West Sussex, in which the wings were incomplete, as 

 though irregularly cut back, so that some had but half wings, and a 

 few were nearly apterous. Some of these specimens had the fore- and 

 hind-wings cut and stalked in a most curious manner. Fletcher has 

 had pairings of deformed males with ordinary females and the reverse, 

 but so far as the limited numbers bred go, the deformity was found 

 not to be hereditary. 



Whilst considering these congenital aberrations, we may mention 

 the occasional occurrence of imagines that retain the larval head. 

 Fletcher has such a specimen of A. filipendulae, a female, bred from a 

 Deal pupa, in which there is no trace of the antennae of the imago. 

 Luff reared a specimen of A. trifolii on August llth, 1874, from a 

 pupa obtained at Herm, which still bore the head of the larva. Two 

 similar specimens of A. lonicerae are recorded by the writer as being 

 obtained from pupas, from Mansfield, Notts, and Staudinger notes the 

 capture of a similar specimen of A. exulans at Bossekop, on July llth, 

 1860. The latter says that in his example the moth was completely 

 developed except the larval head, the mandibles of which were immovable, 

 and the head fixed to the prothorax and only capable of being moved 

 with the latter. The prothorax was completely metamorphosed and 

 carried imaginal legs. There was no indication of an incompletely 

 developed imaginal head within the larval one. 



Bowell has (Ent, Itec., ix., pp. 271-273) some interesting notes on 

 the scales of some of the species of the genus Anthrocera. He finds 

 that the species divide into three groups: (1) The " ephialtes group," 

 comprising, among others, this species, and lavandulae. This group is 

 characterised by there being no difference between the scales of the 

 upper and lower wings. (2) The " Jilipendulae group," comprising, 

 among others, trifolii, lonicerae and Jilipendulae. This group is 

 characterised by the scales of the hind-wings being more attenuated 

 than those of the fore-wings. The former are generally bifid, the 

 latter bifid or trifid. There is, however, great variation in the scales 



