VARIATION OF A. LEVANA 



165 



Of the six hind wings shown above, figs. 1, 2, 3 are drawn 

 from the upper sides of levana aberrations. Fig. 1 was bred by 

 low temperature (breeder unknown to me) in Koslin, on the 

 Baltic. The marginal hand is atalanta-form, the colours are 

 exceptionally rich, the markings in the fore wings resemble 

 those of levana, but the very dark brown under side is without 

 the violet colour-splashes of levana. Fig. 2, ab. porima, from 

 Eichstiidt, north of Ingalstadt, on the Danube, almost exactly 

 copies the markings of A. hureyana. As a whole, the specimen 

 has just the appearance of a "cross" between levana and prorsa ; 

 all the markings and colours of the two varieties are combined 

 in the facies. Fig. 3 dates from Augsburg-on-the-Lech, south 

 of the Danube. There are blue sjiots in the margin of the tving. 

 The vestiges of the fascia are creamy-white, the median lines 

 marking the position of the levana spots are orange, the fore 

 wings show markings like prorsa, but the colour of the central 

 baud is orange, though the costal blotch is creamy- white. The 

 under side is that of prorsa. Fig. 4 shows a specimen of 

 A. levana from the Ussuri regions, north of Vladivostok (the 

 fore wing is shown in the preceding set of figures). The large 

 isolated costal blotch (composed of three parts) reminds one of the 

 markings in V. io and in aberrations of V. urticce, of which latter 

 I have bred several specimens in which the discal cell is orange- 

 coloured. Similar markings are found in other " tortoiseshell " 

 forms of Vauessidse. The transversal row of black markings 

 usually adjoining the costal blotch in levana is nearly obsolete 

 in fig. 4, but the second row of spots is strongly developed, and 

 when one remembers that some of these spots are often blue- 

 centred in levana, the two spots in the outer angle cannot fail to 

 suggest that the ocellus of V. io may have developed from similar 

 markings. The under side of normal V. io exhibits details which 

 support this inference in every way. In fig. 4 the third row of spots 

 (luuules) is powdered with blue, but already the spots are shaped 

 like the corresponding markings in the under side of V. io. In 

 the hind wing of the aberration of T". io (figured in antea, 

 vol. xlii. p. 223), the three (five) separate spots correspond in 

 position with the median row of spots in levana, and need not, 

 therefore, be referred to the third row of spots (the lunules of 

 urticce). This V. io ab. is moreover remarkable for possessing 

 a complete corresponding row of median spots in the under side, 



