VARIATION OF raE MARKINGS OF PAPILIO MACHAON. 131 



noticeable without a magnifying-glass. Thus it is possible to 

 have the red suffusion in the first four and the sixth lunules. 



I regret to say I have not Mr. Jenner Weir's vast acquaintance 

 with foreign allied species, but having noticed what, I think, a 

 marked connection with the above conclusion, in a species which 

 I find unnoticed by him (unless I have it wrongly named), I add 

 it as my one ewe lamb of further evidence in support of the 

 theory of vanished ocelli. I possess a butterfly named as Papilio 

 phorcas, and said to be African, which has an irregular ocellus 

 on the costal angle of the lower wing, the iris of which is blue, 

 much suffused with red ; then follow three lunules of red corre- 

 sponding in position with the second, third, and fourth sub- 

 marginal lunules of P. machaon, and there is another red lunule 

 next to the very distinct ocellus at the anal angle. Thus, in 

 both species, red is found in all the lunules excepting the fifth. 

 May it not be possible that their common ancestor possessed six 

 perfect ocelli ? 



I believe it is a generally accepted theory with evolutionist 

 botanists that yellow was evolved in flowers before red. Perhaps 

 this rule might be applicable also to the animal kingdom, and 

 then may not P. machaon be on the road to acquire the further 

 adornment of five additional ocelli ? 



In the above mentioned five males, in which red is so scanty, 

 there is an additional peculiarity of marking on the upper wings. 

 The yellow markings of the upper wing of a typical P. machaon 

 seem to be arranged in four groups : — 1. An interrupted line on 

 the hind margin. 2. Eight small spots following the direction 

 of the hind margin. 3. A broad mass extending from the costa 

 near the tip of the wing to the inner margin, and divided into 

 nine spots by black scales surrounding certain of the rays, the 

 two of these spots nearest the costa being again divided by a 

 roundish black spot in each, and the portion of the upper one 

 nearest the hind margin and the tip of the wing is much suffused 

 with black scales. 4. Two spots between the costa and the 

 median ray, one of which is divided into three. The peculiarity 

 in these five males consists of an additional round black spot, 

 which is in the third yellow spot from the costa of group 3. 

 These extra spots are only found on specimens that have very 

 little or no red in the lunules of the under wings. 



Myddelton House, Waltham Cross, May 14th, 1891. 



M'4 



