396 PROF. E. B. POITLTON ON BREEDING 



tlio captured parents of Families 1, and 3-16, recorded on pp. 407, 409-414, 

 viz. 2 (J 7 $ lycia, 1 cJ 3 ? infuscata, 1 ? com mi.cta, horn Oni ; 1 cJ 1 ? h/cia, 

 1 $ infuscata, from Idakun. The totals from the Oni district are therefore 

 16 li/eia (5 (J 11 $ ), 10 infuscata (5 cJ 5 ? ), and 3 commixta (1 cJ 2 ? ). 



The artificial conditions produced no apparent effect, the lycia, infuscata, 

 and commixta of the breeding experiments being similar to the captured 

 specimens of the same forms. The families were examined by Eltringham, 

 who states that " the majority .... consist of two forms, viz. infuscata and 

 lycia. The latter are somewhat unusual in having broad suffused orange 

 internervular markinos on the hind maroin of the secondaries on the under 

 side, also some basal markings of the same colour'^ (I.e. p. 213). It is also 

 noticeable that the males of these Southern Nigerian lycia are distinctly 

 yellower than their females, and that the subapical bar of the fore wing in 

 the infuscata forms is yellow in the male, white in the female. Lamborn 

 concludes that lycia is certainly three and probably four times as numerous 

 as infuscata in the neighbourhood of Oni, and his material shows that com- 

 mixta is much rarer than infuscata. He did not meet with any other form 

 except these three, nor did any other appear in his long series of breeding 

 experiments. 



Tabular Statement of W. A. Lamhorn's Breeding Experiments (pp. 397-8). 



It will be observed that Companies 5 and 7, together with Family 8, 

 suggest that lycia and not infuscata is dominant, a conclusion rendered 

 improbable by the rest of the figures. These 3 sets, together with Family 7, 

 are probably to be explained by comparison with Families 4 and 13. The 

 lycia ? parents of these two families laid eggs in two batches, which were 

 kept distinct, and the larvae reared separately. Both families as a whole 

 yield approximate equality of infuscata and lycia, but the constituent batches' 

 depart widely from this ratio. The 4 irregular results referred to above are 

 all manifest in relatively small numbers, and they may be fairly referred to 

 the causes which produced the constituent batches of Families 4 and 13. 



The inferences as to the Meudelian constitution of the parents were sub- 

 mitted to my friend Mr. L. Doncaster, who has had so wide an experience in 

 this line of research. He kindly wrote, April 16^ 1913 : — 



"I think lycia must be recessive in spite of the inverted 3 : 1 cases, because 

 of Family 2. Both parents were from Company 4^ and if lycia were 

 dominant all the lycia individuals would presumably be heterozygous. 

 I think all your inferences as to parentage are correct.^' 



Mr. Doncaster also remarks : — " It is a pity there are no known cases of 

 infuscata $ x lycia S 'i-ud vice versa, which would test whether the infuscata 

 character is sex-limited in the ? ; but as none of the mixed families have all 

 the c^ cJ infuscata and ^ $ lycia, it does not seem likely." 



