﻿86 fBtE EKTOMOtiOGlSl 1 . 



ON THE PHYLOGENETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WING- 

 MAKKINGS in CEETAIN GENEKA of the NYMPHALLDiE.* 



By F. A. Dixey, M.A., F.E.S., &o. 



The varied markings exhibited by the members of the genus 

 Vanessa and its immediate allies (including the Argynnidse), can 

 all be reduced to one simple type, consisting essentially of four 

 series of dark spots running in a direction almost parallel to the 

 outer borders of both fore and hind wings. This pattern in its 

 simplest form is seen in the genus Argynnis, and in a more 

 highly specialised and decorative condition in the genera Pyra- 

 meis, Grapta, and Vanessa. The earliest type now extant is, 

 perhaps, furnished by the female of Argynnis diana, in which the 

 primitive pattern of spots is beginning to be established by a 

 lightening of the dark blue ground colour in certain areas of the 

 wing. A derived form (A. sag ana, female), in which some of the 

 lighter ^ shadings have become almost white, may represent a 

 transition from the primitive speckled condition to that which is 

 the rule in Apatura and Limenitis ; while the female of A. niphe, 

 taken in connection with A. paphia, var. valesina, and Clothilda 

 pantherata, indicates the path along which the generalised system 

 of coloration prevailing among the Argynnids has become 

 transformed into the more specialised pattern of the highly 

 ornamental Vanessas. The blue patches, occurring in the sub- 

 marginal band or chain of spots in many of the Vanessidse, are 

 probably a relic of the original deep blue or green ground colour 

 of the genus Argynnis, to which so many female Argynnids show 

 a tendency to revert ; the bright brown, salmon-coloured, or 

 sparlet ground colour of Vanessids being derived from the fulvous 

 tint generally belonging to the male Argynnids, and in a less 

 degree to the females. From the " Protovanessa," or common 

 ancestor of the genus Vanessa in the widest sense, three 

 principal lines seem to have diverged ; the first leading in the 

 direction of the genus Pyrameis ; the second towards the inter- 

 esting genus Araschnia; the third through the genus Grapta to 

 V. polychloros, V. urticcs, V. milberti, &c. The genus Eurema 

 would seem to be an offshoot from the first of these stems ; the 

 two species, V. io and V. antiopa, from the last. Special atten- 

 tion was drawn to the rudimentary ocellus in the hind wing of 

 V. io, as indicating that the large ocellus nearer the costa 

 was mainly formed out of three members of a series of blue- 

 centred black spots, well marked in P. gonerilla, P. itea, and 

 many other species closely allied to P. cardui ; this conclusion 

 being strengthened by the condition of the ocellus in a variety of 

 V. io, figured in the ' Entomologist,' vol. xxii. PI. viii. fig. 8. 



* Epitome of a paper read before the Entomological Society, London, Feb. 5, 1890. 



