eo8 PROBLEMS OF GENETICS 



one in which the yellow of the body is irregularly distributed in 

 spots and one in which this yellow is arranged for the most part 

 in two longitudinal bands which may be continuous or inter- 

 rupted. The spotted form is, as he showed me, an eastern variety, 

 and the striped form belongs to western Europe. Mr. E. G. 

 Boulenger 22 has since published a careful account of the distri- 

 bution of the two forms. The spotted he regards as the typical 

 form, var. typica, and for the striped he uses the name var. 

 taeniata. The typical form occupies eastern Europe in general, 

 including Austria and Italy, extending as far west as parts of 

 eastern France. The var. taeniata is found all over France, 

 excepting parts of the eastern border, Belgium and western 

 Germany, Spain and Portugal. Of the very large series examined 

 there was only one specimen (Lausanne) which could not with 

 confidence be referred to one or other of the two varieties. 

 Mr. E. G. Boulenger points out that both varieties inhabit very 

 large areas, and live on soils of most different colours and com- 

 positions. Both are liable to variations in the amount and the 

 shade of the yellow, but that any suggestion that taeniata belongs 

 especially to yellow soils and typica to black soils is altogether 

 inadmissible. He expresses surprise that Kammerer should not 

 allude to these peculiarities in the geographical distribution of 

 the two forms. He suggests further that it is more likely that 

 some mistake occurred in Kammerer's observations than that the 

 east European typica should, in the course of a generation, have 

 been transformed into the west European taeniata by the influ- 

 ence of yellow clay soil. 



In his last paper on the subject Kammerer states incidentally 23 

 that he has found the striped form recessive to the spotted. No 

 evidence for this statement is given, and I have not found any 

 other reference to crosses effected between the two natural types. 

 If, however, this representation is correct, it is conceivable that 

 the production of taeniata from typica was in fact the re-ap- 

 pearance of a recessive form. The plate which Kammerer gives 

 in illustration of his modified parent figures a single animal at 

 four stages, and though it is certainly more like the spotted than 



22 E. G. Boulenger, Proc. Zool. Soc, 191 1, p. 323. 



23 Mendel Festschrift, 191 1, p. 84. 



