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JOURNAL, OF VARIATION. 



Vol. XI. No. 11. November 15tii, 1899. 



Lincolnshire aberrations of Spiiosoma lubricipeda. 



(IllHstmted by Plate.) 

 By C. OSBORNE S. HATTON. 



The following notes on SpiIoso))ia luhrieipeda, bred from larva; 

 taken in Lincolnshire during the first Aveek of x\ngust, 1897, may 

 prove interesting. The larv:e were found in large numbers feeding on 

 elder, but always near a house, and especially (I fancied) opposite to 

 windows, as if the female had been attracted by the light and had laid 

 the eggs close at hand. I could only find an occasional one on elder 

 at any distance from a house, whereas in some of the cottage gardens 

 they w^ere so numerous that I could easily have picked off 150 in an 

 hour. Unfortunately I was not going home for several days, and so 

 had not room to take more than about 70 (I believe the actual niuuber 

 was 73). These I was obliged to keep for three days in tin boxes till I 

 reached home, when they were transferred to large cardboard boxes, 

 well ventilated with muslin windows. The majority pupated in about 

 ten days, but some continued feeding for about three weeks, and were 

 fed on elder all the time. 



In all there were 08 pup* ; six I gave away, and I believe they 

 met with an accident and did not emerge ; six did not emei'ge ; one 

 was deformed, and the remaining 55 I set. The imagines vary gradu- 

 ally from a light form with scarcely any black on the upper side of the 

 wings (fig. 1), to a very dark form with practically the whole of the 

 hindwings, except the veins, black, and the forewings black with the 

 exception of the veins and a triangular piece in the middle of the wings 

 (fig. 5). In no case, however, does the black extend to the fringes of the 

 wing. Between these there is a distinct form, which has the black 

 on the forewings in the same places as the type, but all the marks 

 larger and more conspicuous, and the hindwings with a series of 

 oblong black dots between the veins, running parallel to the outer 

 margin, and distant from that margin al)out one-third of the distance 

 of the margin from the base of the wing (figs. 3 and 4). All these 

 latter are females. The 55 may be grouped as follows : 



((() Typical, .38 ( 3 22, ? 16). 



Ih) Between ligs. 2 and 3, (all ? ). 



(r) Between figs. 4 and 5, 11 (5 <? , (! ? ). 



The undersides of the darker ones of c are entirely black except the 

 nervures and fringes (fig. 8). The undersides of /» arc thickly 

 smeared with lilack, but do not appear to have any typical form of 



