184 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



Years ago I caught butterflies and moths instead of 

 watching them, and glancing through an old collec- 

 tion I find three specimens of a fixed variety of the 

 beautiful silver-washed fritillary butterfly. Here is a 

 case of melanism or melachroism, though no one could 

 see mimicry in it or natural selection. The female 

 never the male has darkened into a permanent form. 

 She has completely cast off the brown dress on the 

 upper sides of the wings. Her spots and the edgings 

 of her wings are darker, more emphasised than in the 

 ordinary female silver- washed fritillary, and over the 

 upper sides of her wings is a blue tinge or bloom 

 which I can see distinctly when I look at her at 

 certain angles in a good light. This boldly marked, 

 beautiful insect, who now seems to have set aside for 

 ever the ordinary dress of her sex, is named Valezina. 

 I should add that, though on the whole she has 

 darkened, she has lightened distinctly in the ground 

 colour of her upper wings, which is creamy cream 

 just beginning to turn or even white, and that the 

 bluish tinge has taken the place of olive. So Valezina 

 is blonde and brunette. It is melanism and albinism 

 both with her. 



I have not seen Valezina for years, but probably 

 she still appears in great silver-washed fritillary 

 seasons, no rarer, no commoner than she was. Fresh 

 from chrysalid, opening and closing her wings on the 

 bramble blossoms, she is one of the loveliest of butter- 

 flies. Losing her, the butterflies would lose a variation 



