1905. ] IN THE BEETLE GONIOCTENA VARIABILIS. 529 
The case is of peculiar interest not only on account of the 
great variability in a single species, but especially because of 
the rather close correlation between the two chief colour-types 
and the two sexes. Bateson found that on the hills behind the 
Alhambra at Granada 80 per cent. of the males were spotted and 
dark below, and over 70 per cent. of the females unspotted and 
light. In the Darro valley, perhaps a couple of miles away, only 
62 per cent. of the males were dark, and 85 per cent. of the 
females were light; i.e. there was a much higher proportion of 
light specimens in each sex. On the other hand, at Castillejo, 
near Toledo, rather early in the season, of 75 specimens all were 
dark and spotted, all but one being males. There was therefore 
some indication that the proportions vary with the locality, or 
possibly with the season; and it seemed important to determine 
whether the correlation between variation.and sex was a genuine 
and permanent phenomenon, or was more or less accidental, 
depending on the local and seasonal conditions at Granada. I 
therefore teok the opportunity, during a visit to Southern Spain 
this spring (1905), of collecting Gonioctena in various localities, 
in the hope of settling this question. 
I found that Spartiwn retama, wpon whieh the beetle lives, 
grew abundantly in most of the hilly uncultivated districts I 
visited, except in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar, where [imagine 
that the rainfall is too great, and in the desert to the east of 
the Sierra Nevada, which is almost wholly without vegetation. 
Almost everywhere where I found the Spartiwm I found also 
Gonioctena, but never saw it on any other plant. Where the 
beetles were abundant they were beaten into a net, but when 
they were scarce it was necessary to search carefully for them 
and catch each one separately. This probably leads to a slight 
excess of reds in my samples, since they are much more con- 
spicuous; but when this method was adopted the bushes were 
searched very thoroughly, and I believe that the error may safely 
be disregarded. On one occasion one method was used in a 
particular locality, and two days later the other was tried in the 
same place; and the difference in the proportions of red and 
greens was not more than about 3 per cent., which might easily 
have been due to chance in a comparatively small sample. 
I collected the beetles at Ronda, Granada, and in two or three 
localities in the neighbourhood of Malaga ; those at Ronda were 
obtained on March 23-24, at Granada March 25 and 28, and 
collections were made at Malaga at the beginning of April and 
again towards the end of the month. It will be most convenient 
to describe the Granada collection first. On the hills behind the 
Alhambra, between the Genil and Darro valleys, Gonzoctena was 
exceedingly abundant, and I collected altogether 1382 specimens, 
978 males and 404 females (Table I.). In the distribution of 
the different varieties they agree remarkably closely with those 
obtained by Bateson ten years ago in the same place. Bateson 
