82 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Mar., '07 



cised only upon such structures and habits as already exist. 

 The structural characters which condition the habits may have 

 arisen by mutation or by any other process by which heritable 

 modifications may arise. Having- arisen, and being adapted 

 to the needs of the insect, the structures and consequent habits 

 will be preserved by selection. For, if certain specimens by 

 mutation should become still weaker, they might be blown 

 from their restricted habitat, and so perish. If, on the other 

 hand, they should become stronger, so as to attempt to fly with 

 the wind, the same fate would befall them. If the assumptions 

 here made are correct, the habits of the imago are probably 

 preserved by the destruction of those individuals which depart 

 from the most nearly adapted condition. 



It is to be hoped that others who live in regions where 

 Anthocharis olympia is found will observe the habits and 

 history, and note the variations which a different environment 

 may bring about. 



■ m » > 



A new Variety of Thecla damon. 



By H. H. Brehme, Newark, N. J. 



Almost every collector in Newark, and even in New York 

 and Brooklyn, knows, when he wants specimens of Thecla 

 damon, to go to Garret mountains at Paterson, N. J., for 

 this species. I have myself collected this insect for a num- 

 ber of years past, and have taken over a thousand examples, 

 mostly of the spring brood, though also some of the summer 

 brood. All of these specimens were of the usual bright ful- 

 vous color with dark borders, and none showed any tendency 

 toward a black variety such as is described below. Scudder, 

 in his Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada, 

 mentions having a single specimen from Long Island. It is 

 apparently a good variety, there being no intermediates, so I 

 propose the name patersonia for it in order that it may be here- 

 after referred to by name, Thecla damon Cram, var patersonia, 

 nov. var. 



Of the same size as the usual form, upper surface of both 

 pairs of wings even blackish-brown, with a very few scales 



