154 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



In a letter to me Dr. Standfuss expresses his satisfaction with 

 experiments on pupae of Smerinthidae. When his trials are com- 

 pleted, the results will be published. Dr. A. Kraus found a 

 melanic form of an Orthopterous insect on the Bodensee, evi- 

 dently caused by a more severe climate than that of the natural 

 home of the type, which is southern Italy bordering on the 

 Mediterranean Sea. 



In this country Dr. O. Seifert has obtained results similar to 

 those of Dr. Standfuss regarding the genus Vanessa, the only 

 difference being that he regards V. polychloros as the stem form. 

 The difference between this species and V. urticce is, however, 

 very small, and further experiments by Dr. Seifert will, no doubt, 

 verify Standfuss' observations. His own experiments on the 

 genus Arctia are wonderful, and one interested in this subject 

 will do well to read his various articles published from time to 

 time in the Journal of the N. Y. Entomological Society, Canadian 

 Entomologist, and the Entomological News. 



In a paper read before the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and 

 Sciences and also before the Brooklyn Entomological Society 

 last year, I mentioned my observations on Satyrus alope and its 

 forms, which seem to support this theory, and exhibited a num- 

 ber of specimens taken at different elevations in New York State. 

 Alope is the lowland type form and as soon as a certain eleva- 

 tion is reached this is replaced by nephele. No alope is found 

 in the higher regions and no nephele in the lower, while inter- 

 grades between the two forms can be obtained in numbers about 

 half way up the mountains, thus substantiating the theory that 

 aberrations are produced by climatic changes. 



If this paper encourages some of our entomologists to under- 

 take experiments in this particular line, it will have fulfilled its 

 purpose, and I shall most assuredly be pleased to hear of any 

 results that may be obtained in the future. 



