650 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



tions in shape and position described : it may not extend beyond the 

 8tb segment, or it may (P. Ehodifer) project like a fine wire far beyond 

 the end of the abdomen. The normally upper side consists of a 

 cylinder of dense smooth chitin, lined by a soft pulpy white substance 

 with shining surface. Occasionally the organ is connected with the 

 scaphium or with the floor of the generative cavity by bands of tissue : 

 in a few species it has a conical sheath, in one it traverses an aperture 

 in a horny wall. It appears that the accessory organs grasp the 

 exterior of the female abdomen, except the harpes, which perhaps 

 grasp the vulva-valves, but their various forms in different species do 

 not seem to be represented by corresponding modifications of the 

 abdomen in the female. 



Although he finds that the characters given by the shapes of these 

 orgaus would arrange the species quite otherwise than the usual 

 classificatory characters, Mr. Gosse finds them very constant in the 

 same species, and even employs them to support his opinion as to the 

 identity of nearly allied forms : thus he would unite Papilio Agenor 

 Wallace and Androgeos Cramer with P. Memnon Linn., and P, 

 Androgeos, Thersites, Pohjcaon and Lycophron with each other: in the 

 case of P. Nireus and Bromius he is inclined to consider these very 

 similar species as distinct creations, on the ground of the great dif- 

 ferences between them in the whole of the external male generative 

 apparatus. 



In some other Butterflies examined, chiefly Pieridce, these organs 

 exhibit gradual disappearance. In Pieris the harpes are absent or 

 delicate, and the scaphium may be absent. In CalUdryas the valve 

 is elaborate. Gonopteryx has no, or but a small scaphium, and the 

 proper harpes may be absent. Terias seems to have no harpes, and 

 the uncus is minute. Colias has no valves or harpes. Morpho seems 

 to have no harpes or scaphium. Dynastor has its valves modified into 

 formidable harpe-like organs, already foreshadowed in Morpho. 



Mr. Gosse claims almost absolute novelty for the observations made 

 by him. 



Colour Preferences in Nocturnal Lepidoptera.* — L. P. Gratacap 

 writes : — " For two seasons past (1881 and 1882) I have made fruitless 

 attempts to reach some definite conclusions as to the relative im- 

 portance of a few primary colours as attracting signals to night-flying 

 insects. I do not know whether the plan adopted is original or not, 

 and as it may yield some useful or interesting results in the hands of 

 others, I briefly describe it. I made four or five sleeves, or cylinders 

 open at both ends, of variously coloured tissue papers, and drew them 

 over common kerosene lamps with glass chimneys, the familiar illu- 

 minating agents of all country homes, thus improvising a very ser- 

 viceable and inexpensive Chinese lantern. The advantage of this 

 arrangement consists in the ease with which the coloured sleeves 

 can be changed, any combination of colours being secured without 

 removing the light, and so a uniformity of light-power maintained at 

 the several stations and for the several coloiu-s during one experiment. 



♦ Amer. Xatural., xvii. (1883) pp. 791-2. 



