58 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
intentional migration to the islands? If our theory, however, 
be an incorrect one, as it may be, we should indeed be glad 
if some one would lend a helping hand to solve this question 
of a migration of tiny butterflies from the American main to 
those small and remote isles, 600 miles away over the rolling 
waters of the trackless deep. 
J. MATTHEW JONES. 
Halifax, N.S., November 15, 1875. 
Description of some Varieties of Vanessa Io, éc., probably 
caused by starving the Larve. By H. Ramsay Cox, 
Ksq., F.L.S. 
So much has been said on “ varieties ” being produced by 
starvation that some readers who have not had personal expe- 
rience in the subject may be a little interested in a short 
description of the “ varieties ” (so-called) that I lately bred of 
some of the Vanessez, caused, I believe, by starvation. I should 
say that the shortness of fare the poor larve were subjected 
to was quite unintentional. 
We captured in the New Forest a number of half-grown 
larvee of Vanessa lo, which were carefully fed for a few 
days; but owing to my boy’s neglect, and to my being busy 
with the net, they were left several days without food; all 
dead leaves and stalks had been devoured. They were a 
very long time changing, and many fastened themselves to 
the bottom of the cage, as if too weak to spin up on the top or 
sides, in the ordinary manner. Very few died either in the 
larval or pupal state. 
Nearly all the imagos were of course rather smail; they 
varied much in the intensity of their colouring, and two spe- 
cimens are very singularly marked. In one, the yellow costal 
spot is only represented by avery small white mark: there is 
scarcely any yellow in the ocellus, a large part of which is 
filled up with black, the usual chocolate patch in it is also 
black. The chocolate ground colour is also darker than 
usual. In the hind wing the ocellus contains only two small 
round violet spots. ‘he other specimen is similarly marked, 
except in the hind wings, in which there is no ocellus at all 
of the ordinary character, but merely an irregularly shaped 
Pl Ri tA 
