93 



fully. At its very brightest, say those at bottom of box now exhi- 

 bited, even they are dull-coloured in contrast with the Swiss insect. >, 

 To complete my exhibition, I now add, at the top of the box, three '^^ 

 Swiss examples. The upper without a body is a male, and the two 

 lower examples are females, as may be seen by their cream collar 

 and legs. On the right side of top of box I have placed four 

 females of the extreme form of var. siibochracea, two each of 1889 

 and 1 89 1, and two males of this year's capture; also two pupa cases 

 in situ, and may I ask a critical examination of these. First, take 

 the great difference of colour, say with the three Swiss, and, say, all 

 the five rows of Scotch at bottom of box. Note well the difference 

 of opacity of the area of all the wings of the three Swiss as compared 

 with the five Scotch rows, and particularly note the great difference 

 in the length of hairs on the bodies of the Swiss females. These 

 are females, as the cream-white collar and ditto cream-coloured feet 

 prove ; and compare the length of these hairs with that of the hairs 

 of the Scotch females, the latter have sleek-looking bodies, whilst 

 the Swiss have quite long-haired bodies, more like the Scotch males. 

 This character, coupled with much more thinly-ranged scales on the 

 Scotch females, always gives them a distinctly semi-diaphanous 

 appearance, and is most striking when seen in a lot of them arranged 

 together. 



The Scotch females have a character that I miss altogether in 

 the Swiss females, viz., the fringes of the Scotch females are pale 

 whitish grey, but in the Swiss the fringes are black; and in the 

 Scotch females the ridges of the nervures are covered with pale 

 whitish grey scales, which when alive and in daylight is very distinc- 

 tive looking ; they have a powdered-looking appearance, as if they 

 had been dusted with flour. And again, in the Scotch females the 

 spots on superior wing are only red in the centre, the outer edges all 

 being of a pale ochreous grey. Further, the hind-wings of the 

 Scotch insect have a blackish tone, and a broader black border ; this 

 gives a dull look to this insect as compared with the brighter- 

 coloured hind-wings of the Swiss. 



The above differences are readily seen in any of the Scotch 

 examples when compared with the Swiss, but much more sharply so 

 when the extreme form of the Braemar var. siibochracea is used for 

 comparison. 



Of course, in a lot of Swiss specimens I have little doubt but 

 that some range of difference of coloration would be found, still I 

 feel certain I could pick out Swiss from Scotch specimens without 

 any mistake. 



One very curious feature in the Scotch insect is the ready way in 

 which it loses the little red it has on its emergence ; a day or two 

 seems quite enough to destroy that. It fades away during life sooner 

 than any insect I know of, certainly much more rapidly than in any 

 other British Zygczna. 



I never saw the Swiss insect alive, but the iz^ I have had over 



