COMPARATIVE NOTES ON V. URTIC^, ETC. 341 



Aberration in urtica, type, shows that icJmusa is much more 

 than merely a climatical variety — Hke, for instance, turcica, 

 persica, polaris — and forms of urticcB with small or obsolete 

 puncta or inner marginal spot can scarcely be considered to be 

 ichnusa if the spots are not also displaced, as in ichnusa also 

 the ground colour of urtica must not he changed in such forms, 

 for it is already ichnusa-ioYxn. in all normal bright specimens ; 

 instead, a spread of the ground colour would be wanted, and in 

 addition a spread also of the basal suffusion. And this, as has 

 already been shown, is not all. Still other alterations of the facies 

 would be needed before it could be said that an aberration of nrticce 

 deserved — by its facies — the name of the Corsican form ichnusa. 

 Thus the description of ichnusa quoted by Mr. Eaynor in the Ent. 

 Eec. pt. 1, 1909, " Variation of V. urtica," was quite insufficient 

 to characterize this form, and if he based the statement upon it 

 that ichnusa had appeared in England (made on page 7), then 

 perhaps it would be found that the specimens Mr. Eaynor 

 referred to were only in some ways ichnusa-fovm, but were 

 perhaps more like turcica, for reasons already dealt with. 



No doubt the var. turcica is ic/mwsa-form, at least in the 

 spread of the ground colour. This " all-orange " facies appears 

 occasionally by aberration in urticcB under almost all kinds of 

 external conditions of development ; most easily, however, does 

 it show itself after development (both larval and pupal) has 

 taken place in a low, contrastless temperature. This colouring 

 is no doubt atavic, as already noted. And also, from other 

 facial details, it seems that ichnusa and turcica represent old 

 forms, while urticce is comparatively progressive, so that its only 

 excuse for posing as the "type" rests with the fact that it is 

 the most common and widely distributed modern form among 

 its kindred. The resemblance noticeable in ichnusa, female, to 

 the atavic V. io ab. fischeri* gives evidence of atavic features 

 retained in the facies by ichnusa. It may also be not without 

 interest to note that, whereas shadowy median puncta appear in 

 male ichnusa, but are absent in the female, the reverse is the 

 case in the American milberti. This species, which is usually 

 without puncta, shows traces of them first in the female speci- 

 mens, and in these they appear in the same relative position as 

 in urticce. When comparing the position of the puncta in other 

 " tortoiseshell " Vanessidae, one finds that the variable levana 

 shows these markings in almost every possible form of variation, 

 as they are found in other Araschnids and in some Pyrameids, 



* In antea, vol, xlii. pt. 12, p. 311, I figured V. io ah. fischeri together 

 with two forms of V. io common in the field. In the accompanying text I 

 had suggested that each of the latter forms was mainly dependent on certain 

 conditions of temperature. Having satisfied myself of the truth of this by 

 suitably conducted experiments on ova, larva, and pupa, I will now name the 

 spotted form, fig. 2, ab. mesoides, and tlie banded form, fig. 3, ab. teloides. 



