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bronzy green frame, the green covered with the tiniest and most 

 sparkling particles of gold that can be imagined. Dried insects in 

 cabinets are beautiful, but how much more beautiful is the enchant- 

 ing loveliness of these magnificent creatures in a state of nature, 

 where the green leaves act as a setting to a brilliant jewel, and the 

 shimmering sunlight falls in golden drops, making the metallic 

 particles on the wing sparkle with the concentrated brilliancy of the 

 sunlight itself. I could not kill that insect. I had already received 

 from it one of the best lessons in natural beauty that I had ever 

 received. I knew that if I killed it, its tender and absolute 

 perfection would fade, and reference to the dead body might make 

 me some day believe that I had overdrawn the picture. I preferred 

 to let it leave its mark on my memory, indelibly fixed there by 

 virtue of its retiring and modest loveliness, and to carry away my 

 first and truest impression of its beauty. 



Let us look at these red spots on its wing a little more closely. 

 The top spot at the base is a rather long one, extending between 

 the costal and the subcostal nervure, and having a tendency to 

 stretch along to join the top spot of the middle pair, but the dark 

 green subcostal nervure does its best to prevent it from doing so. 

 'J"he lower spot of the basal pair is long and rather oval in the 

 specimens which are marked the most clearly, and which show the 

 least sign of blotching ; whilst the lower one of the middle pair is 

 also a rather long oval blotch. Separate enough as these two lower 

 spots are in most specimens, yet you may observe that there is a 

 tendency in others for them to unite and form a longitudinal blotch 

 along the centre of the wing. In some specimens, too, it will be 

 seen that there is an attempt made by the upper spot of the middle 

 pair to unite with the outer spot, an attempt which is occasionally 

 successful. 



What an excellent lesson this teaches us ! All these attempts 

 made in various individuals rarely come to a head in the same 

 specimen. But let us look for a moment at Zygcetia pilosellcz, a near 

 relation. Compare it with Z. achillece carefully. There is the same 

 longitudinal character about the upper of the two basal blotches. 

 There is the same bulky blotch towards the apex of the wing, 

 identical in shape in both species ; but in Z. pilosellcB the union of 

 this outer blotch with the upper spot of the central pair, thus 

 forming a longitudinal blotch, is the normal character, as is also the 

 union of the lower spots of the basal and middle pairs into a 

 second longitudinal blotch ; so that in Z. pilosellcE. we get the long 

 costal spot starting from the base; a second blotch, formed by the 

 union of the upper middle spot with the outer one ; and a third, 

 formed by the union of the two lower spots. The characters, there- 

 fore, that occur as an occasional form of variation in Z. achtliece, and 

 never, so far as my observation has gone, with all the variable 

 characters developed in the same individual, is the normal condition 

 in its xe\aX\wQ Z. pilosellos ; and in whatever way the scientific enquirer 



