THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XLIIL] AUGUST, 1910. [No. 567 



A BLACK-TIPPED ABERRATION OF GONEPTERYX 

 {RHODOCERA) RHAMNI, Male. 



By T. Reuss. 



On June 6th last, two fine larvfe of Rhodocera rhamni pupated 

 in a heated breeding cage. One of the two pupae, which hung 

 side by side, emerged on the 15th as a large male specimen 

 with unusually elongated and pointed wing-tips. The other 

 pupa had already on the 14th attracted my attention by "colour- 

 ing up" in an unusual way, as shown in tbe first of the above 

 figures. While the wing-cases grew opaque with the bright 

 yellow pigment deposited beneath them in the normal way, the 

 tips of the wings remained transparent in the same way as do 

 the wing-tips in pup^e of Pieris hrassiccs and other species when 

 the colouring begins to show itself. The pupa did not emerge on 

 the 15th but continued to develop. The wing-tips began to 

 grow greyish and opaque — on the 16th they were nearly black 

 and by the evening they were jet black as in figs. 2 and 3. Also 

 the wing-bases turned black, though hardly more than normal, 

 and the discal spot remained orange. E arly on the morning of the 

 17th, the pupa which, except for the black wing-tips, looked quite 

 normal and promised a fine specimen, emerged unexpectedly as 

 a cripple. Compared with aberrations of other species, the 

 black-tipped R. rhamni (ab. nigriapicata n. ab.) would perhaps 

 rank in the category with forms which have been described of 



ENTOM. — AUGUST, 1910. R 



