THE ENTOMOLOGIST, 253 
This drew forth the following communication from M. E. 
Bellier de Chavignerie :— 
“Under the title of ‘Simple Notes’ there have appeared, 
in ‘ Les Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques,’ several interesting 
articles by M. le Marquis de Lafitole regarding observations 
about Lepiduptera, which he has made during several years. 
In one of these articles M. de Lafitole, in writing of Chelonia 
caja, gives an account of some experiments which he made 
in order to obtain varieties of this very variable species, and 
concludes by suggesting whether electricity is not one of the 
principal causes of variation among Lepidoptera. 
“This opinion of M. de Lafitole on the influence which 
electricity may have in causing varieties, coincides with that 
expressed by me many years ago in a ‘Note on the 
Accidental Variation of Lepidoptera, published in the 
‘Annales de la Société entomologique de France,’ 1858, 
p- 299, and to support it I related a very remarkable fact 
which I had witnessed. The note is as follows:—‘On the 
15th of August, 1847, | was in a locality where Lycawna Adonis 
is found in abundance, in order to obtain a supply of its 
food-plant. The heat had been intense for several days, and 
a storm was evidently at hand. In fact, I had scarcely 
arrived at the hunting-ground, and had only time to pin my 
‘first five Adonis, when a violent storm burst and forced me 
hastily to return. What was my astonishment, on leisurely 
examining my captures at home,—the result of an excursion 
so suddenly interrupted,—to find that the colour of my five 
Adonis, which had emerged but a few hours, was a 
beautiful lilac, instead of the bright blue which is so notice- 
able in all the Lycenida. It was in vain that | frequently 
revisited the same locality ; never again did I see this curious 
aberration. It would have been interesting to know whether 
all the Adonis which emerged on the 15th of August, 1847, 
in the same locality, under the influence of an atmosphere 
highly charged with electricity, were affected in the same 
way as the five specimens that I took on that day.’ 
“My reason for recording this incident—which is, alas! 
thirty years old, and which the labours of M. de Lafitole 
have brought to mind—is to draw the attention of entomolo- 
gists to the subject, and to advise them to direct their 
investigations to, and to increase their experiences in, the 
