846 



SCIENCE 



vs. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 832 



From the preceding tables it will be seen 

 that the statement in my earlier paper (1906) 

 based on the data for 1895-1905 was true. 

 But this statement can not be repeated for 

 the series 1906-10. The statement made in 

 1906 is: 



If series of 1,000 really reveal the variation con- 

 ditions of the color pattern in the species in these 

 diflferent years (and our check lots show that they 

 do) it is apparent from these statistics that Dia- 

 irotica soror, in this particular locality, has in 

 ten years changed from a form in which one 

 pattern type was the mode to one in which an- 

 other is the mode. And this change has been 

 gradual and cumulative; not made by a mutation 

 or by discontinuous variation, i. e., discontinuous 

 evolution. The two modes or predominant types 

 of pattern are connected to-day as they were ten 

 years ago by all degrees of gradations; the varia- 

 tion, that is, is typically continuous or " Dar- 

 winian " in type. 



Since 1906 this change from all-spots-free 

 to middle-spots-fused has not proceeded nor 

 even maintained itself. In 1908, 1909 and 

 1910 the lots studied from the campus flowers 

 have all shown a predominance of the all- 

 spots-free type. That is, the mode has swung 

 back to the 1895 condition, or we may say, 

 the species type. In the light of this fact, and 

 in the suggestive light of the conditions pre- 

 sented by the lots taken from the Baccharis 

 two miles away from the campus flowers and 

 by the lots taken at Santa Eosa and San Jose 

 in 1902 and 1906, it seems obvious that my 

 case of determinate variation resolves itself 

 into a case of fluctuational variation deter- 

 mined in one direction, then in another, in 

 some way by a probably varying environment 

 (using the word in a broad sense to include 

 varying temperature, humidity, food supply, 

 etc., during larval and pupal life of the 

 beetles). There is no indication just what 

 influence it is during immature life that is 

 modifying the imaginal color pattern in this 

 very definite and wholly unadaptive way, but 

 some such influence must be behind the 

 variation. It is certainly no inherent modi- 

 fying principle working toward a purposeful 

 or even purposeless goal, because it does not 

 work consistently. And yet it is no such 



simple modification of a total color tone by 

 low temperature or high humidity as I have 

 been able to produce experimentally in cer- 

 tain insects of incomplete metamorphosis, 

 e. g., Murgantia hisirionica, the harlequin 

 cabbage bug. It is a variation determined in 

 certain alternating' directions by a changing 

 environment, by extrinsic influences working 

 non-adaptively and unreasonably — may I say? 

 — that is, producing changes that are not such 

 as our knowledge — lamentably incomplete, to 

 be sure — of the relation of varying food, tem- 

 perature, humidity, light intensity, etc., to in- 

 sect colors, enables us to prophesy. 



The beetle still presents to me, therefore, 

 an enduring interest even if it be not behav- 

 ing in the way suggested by my questioning use 

 in 1906 of the phrase "determinate variation." 



Vernon L. Kellogg 

 Stanfoed University, Cai,. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 474th regular meeting of the society was 

 held in the hall of the Cosmos Club on November 

 12, 1910, with President T. S. Palmer in the chair 

 and a good attendance of members. 



Under the heading " brief notes," Dr. Barton 

 W. Evermann reported continued success in keep- 

 ing the two fur seals from the Pribilof Islands, 

 which were received at the Bureau of Fisheries 

 last spring. He reported also that ten more seals 

 had been brought from the north on the revenue 

 cutter Bear and landed safely at Seattle. Of these 

 seven are now feeding well and the other three 

 less satisfactorily. It is intended to distribute 

 the ten as follows: two to Golden Gate Park, San 

 Francisco; two to the New York Aquarium; four 

 to the National Zoological Park, Washington, 

 D. C; and two will be left at Seattle, if suitable 

 accommodations for them can be provided. 



The following communications were presented: 



A. New Jaguar Record for Texas : Vebnon Baiii;y. 

 The present record is of a large specimen of the 

 jaguar killed last spring in central Texas, near 

 Loudon, Kimble County, not far from the Llano 

 River. Mr. Bailey showed a lantern slide photo- 

 graph of the dead animal and also a map showing 

 localities of the principal records for this animal 

 within the United States. The jaguar formerly 



