'Z THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and Mr. George Holmes, of Kendal, and it is only extreme 

 pressure of work that has prevented my calling attention to 

 them earlier. Then more recently Mr. B. H. Crabtree, of 

 Levenshulme, Manchester, followed with a photograph of some 

 extraordinary forms bred by Mr. H. Murray, of Carnforth, in 

 1893, and now in Mr. Crabtree's collection — probably some of 

 the most remarkable aberrations of the species in existence. 

 Our Editor has wisely made arrangements for all to be presented 

 to readers of ' The Entomologist ' together, and I believe they 

 furnish a new chapter in the written history of E. reticulata. 



To begin with Mr. Littlewood's photograph as the first which 

 reached me — ^^although chronologically his specimens are the 

 younger. Since 1904, when (after an interval of eight years) 

 JB. reticulata was rediscovered through the energy of the Rev. A. 

 M. Moss, Mr. Littlewood, Mr. Holmes and others have profited 

 by his generosity in putting them into the way of working for it, 

 and have bred it in good numbers. I may perhaps be allowed 

 to say in parenthesis that Mr. Littlewood has accumulated some 

 very interesting notes on the early stages, which I hope he will 

 be induced to publish at no very distant date. The specimens 

 figured are, I understand, the pick of the breeding of the years 

 which have supervened on the said rediscovery. Mr. Littlewood 

 and Mr. Crabtree both agree with my remarks as to the general 

 constancy of the species. 



Figs. 7 and 14 represent the two ordinary forms (both about 

 equally common), and show that the normal range of variation is 

 restricted to a difference in the degree of approximation of the 

 antemedian and postmedian lines on the costa, as mentioned 

 in my note above referred to. The other specimens are all 

 aberrant in some way, some strikingly so. The frequency of 

 asymmetry is a noteworthy feature ; it will be recollected that 

 the two most striking aberrations previously described (Mr. 

 Nurse's and Mr. Webb's) are both asymmetrical. In Fig. 8 

 the asymmetry, though slight, is curious, probably even unique ; 

 on the right fore wing the first median (vein 3) is only white as 

 far as the postmedian line instead of to the termen. Fig. 9 

 speaks for itself ; the abnormality, it will be noticed, is confined 

 to the left fore wing. Fig. 10 I take to be roughly the ab. ovulata, 

 Borgmann, though his example may probably have had the 

 central mark more nearly oval — more as in Mr, Crabtree's Fig. 4. 

 Figs. 11 and 12 are a noteworthy asymmetrical pair, each with 

 one wing of the ovulata form. In Fig. 13 the antemedian double 

 white line is broadly coalescent on both wings. 



Still more strange are some of Mr. Crabtree's aberrations, 

 all of which, however, are full sized and well formed, so that 

 one cannot attribute them to arrested development. Fig. 4 is a 

 fine extreme example of ab. ovulata. Nos. 2, 3, and 5, though 

 differing widely inter se, may be considered as having something 



