1464 The Zoologist — November, 1868. 



any kind be made on paper with a pen, and if tbe paper be folded, the ink being 

 inside and still wet, a symmetrical pattern is produced, the sides of which, like the 

 markings on the wings of a butterfly, exactly correspond." Mr. Higgins then proceeds 

 to answer this question thus: " In the limited number of instances in which I have 

 been able lo examine the sufficiently advanced chrysalis of a butterfly nothing of this 

 kind has been indicated: the like spots on the right and left side do not, in the pupa 

 state, coincide ; the folds do not bisect the markings; that which becomes a beautifully 

 formed band begins as a mere line, or a shapeless spot ; and this stage of the meta- 

 morphosis, if watched, conveys a decided impression that the resulting colour-pattern 

 is not dependent on the folding of the wings in the immature condition." The thing 

 which puzzles me and has puzzled others who have read the above observations is 

 the mentiou of folds in the butierfly wing when in a pupal condition: in all the 

 chrysalides that I have examined just before the exit of the imagines, the wings, as 

 seen through the hyaline integument, have appeared as perfect, though miniature, 

 facsimiles of these organs in their full-growu condition; none of the bands have been 

 mere lines nor shapeless spots. But now we come to the second and more plausible 

 part of the theory. The simplest type of colouring being pure white or yellow, 

 and the first approach to definite marking being found in the Crataegi type of 

 coloration, in which the nervures are clothed with black scales, Mr. Higgins supposes 

 that all the dark scale colouring, as represented by the blacks and browns, may have 

 proceeded from the nervures, and it is with the object of pointiug this out most forcibly 

 that the plate accompanying his paper is prepared.* As a striking evidence of the 

 probable truth of this view, the genus Hestia is instanced, in which " the primary 

 pattern is diversified by a great variety of black spots and blotches, which are evidently 

 dependent on the venation : the spots occupy a central position between the veins, or 

 they are bisected by a false vein, or they are in pairs contiguous to a vein." Now as it 

 is perfectly evident that the spots must either lie upon the veins or between them, 

 1 cannot see how this particular instance can bear any weight in the argument; nor 

 does it appear that spots occupying a central position between the veins can well be 

 dependent upon these veins. Again, with regard to the production of the " paler ground 

 colour," we read that it finds its origin in a kind of blush or deepening of* the primary 

 coloration of the wings, "the transition" from one to the other being " generally 

 gradual, the richer being shaded off at its edges into the paler colour;" but surely, 

 unless this can be shown to be universally the case, this theory must continue to be a 

 mere conjecture. The gloss or shot-colouring is caused, Mr. Higgins tells us, by in- 

 finitesimal iridescent striations " upon the surface of the scales which contain the pig- 

 ment grains," but he does not proceed to inform us of the means by which these striae 

 are produced, so that we are left in as great a dilemma as we were in at the first. — 

 A. G. Butler. 



* It is lo be regretted that an entomological artist was not chosen to produce this 

 plate, as in such case several serious errors might have been avoided: fig. 1, the 

 comraou Indian Dissimilis of Linnaeus is queried as Zagreus, Doubl., a scarce and 

 well-marked American species; fig. 3, O. Damaris represented with antennae and palpi 

 broken off near the base; fig. 4, P. Crataegi represented with split club to antennae. — 

 A. G. B. 



