140 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



spring" with temperatures of 8°-15° C. at night, and 16°-25° C. 

 by day, from January 29th onwards. The aberration exhibits 

 exceptionally large blue markings (lunules) on the upper side of 

 the orange black-spotted hind wings, and in the median and 

 anal parts of the wing these blue markings form into a band, 

 such as, in the Entom. vol. xlii. p. 311, I had suggested might 

 decorate the wings of V. urticce. There are blue lunules also on 

 the forewiiigs near the apex. The levaiia under side has the 

 broad violet culoiir patches which in the large-sized Araschnia 

 hiireyana, Brem., var. thibetana, Obth. (which is facially connected 

 with levana by hiireyana and the large Ze^•aua-variety of the 

 Sayan mountains), help to form an apical ocellus reminding one of 

 the ocellus in the fore wings of V. io. As the markings of the 

 upper and under sides are interchangeable to a certain extent, 

 the comparison is, perhaps, not quite vain. Two of the ocelli 

 in the anal wing parts are shaped strikingly like those of 

 P. atalanta-indica, and also otherwise the under side facies 

 pictures details characteristic of the subtropical or tropical 

 Pyrameid group of Vanessid^ — for instance, of indica-carye- 

 terpsichore-virginiensismyriyina* 



On the other hand, the upper side resembles the " tortoise- 

 shell" forms of the Vanessids, which are characteristic of northern 

 climatical conditions, such as the many forms of c-albiim-urticce 

 {milherti), xanthonielas-polychloros. Mixed with these markings, 

 the white Pyrameid spots show brightly on the fore wings, but 

 these spots, though changed in appearance, occur also in the 

 several " tortoiseshell " species or their aberrations, and espe- 

 cially in V. io. The third costal spot in levana is also — together 

 with the distribution of yellow along the costa — ioform. I 

 would suggest that the small-sized polymorph A. levana, with 

 its whitish-ringed body and light-veined harmoniously coloured 

 under side, pictures a comparatively primitive stage of facial 

 development in the Vanessidse, that, indeed, the very dark under 

 sides of, for instance, urticce, io, polychloros, are of comparatively 

 recent origin and representative of high specialization in adap- 

 tation to the habit of these forms to hybernate in the imago state, 

 for all the Vanessidfe that hybernate in earlier stages of deve- 

 lopment, and the non-hybernating tropical Pyrameid species, 

 particularly those of South America, preserve the light-veined, 

 fine-toned under side facies, which, among rich vegetation 

 and in every kind of light, may be supposed to be more in 

 harmony with its surroundings,! and therefore, also, more 



* See 'Eut. Ree.,' pt. 1, pi. 1, 1910, " Comparative View of Vanessid 

 Species," for text see pts. 3 and 4. 



f The wing parts of a butterfly, which are exposed when the insect is at 

 rest, most distinctly show a tendency to " colourphotograph " their surround- 

 ings (Poulton, Standfus=!, Wiener). The influence of colour on the wing- 

 cells may be either direct or indirect through the eyes of the butterfly. 

 Thus the coloiirs and even the patterns oi favourite resting-places, flowers. 



