806 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



white, whilst the other wings are typical. In other specimens both 

 fore wings are silvery white, and the hind wings quite normal. 

 Another and not altogether rare form of col our- variation is that 

 in which the hind wings alone are aberrant. In such specimens 

 the copper-coloured band is either broken up into narrow streaks, 

 or entirely obliterated by the encroachment of the ground colour. 



The black spots on upper surface of the fore wings are 

 sometimes very small, and not infrequentl}^ specimens are found 

 with less than the normal number of spots, and in very rare 

 instances the whole of the spots are obsolete. There is also 

 aberration from typical lines in the opposite direction, and we find 

 examples with the spots much larger than usual, and often tending 

 to confluency. The extreme limit to this phase in the variation 

 of C, phloeas appears to be reached in var. fasciata, the type 

 of which was from Florida, and is described by Strecker as 

 follows : — " ? . All the black spots on upper surface of primaries, 

 save one within the discoidal cell, are enormously enlarged and 

 confluent, forming a broad, somewhat irregular, black band, 

 extending from costa to inner margin. Under surface exactly as 

 in common form." (' Butterflies and Moths of N. America,' p. 101, 

 1878.) In the 'Entomologist' for 1878 (xi., p. 25) is a figure of 

 a banded example of G. 'phloeas, captured in Middlesex, which is 

 certainly of the form described by Strecker. Intermediates 

 between var. fasciata, and the type are not rare in Britain, and 

 Mr. Sabine captured three examples this year, in all of which the 

 black spots are very large, and those of transverse series inclined 

 to coalesce ; the outer discal spot in one example is almost united 

 with fourth spot of transverse series; in another specimen, the 

 third and fifth spots of transverse series are pyriform. Blue spots 

 before the copper band of hind wings are not unusual, but these 

 are rarely, if ever, so large and conspicuous in British specimens 

 as they are in examples from Eastern Asia. On the under suifcice 

 the black spots on primaries are very frequently distinctly ringed 

 with yellowish, but the spots on the hind wings are not well 

 defined as a rule. In some examples, however, the black spots 

 are not only distinct on the hind wings, but these wings have 

 also a black transverse waved line, edged externally with pale 

 greyish brown. 



Fig. 1. (3^ . Upper surface : the black spots on the fore wings 

 of this example are rather large, and those of the transverse 

 series are almost confluent. On the under surface, the markings 

 are of a very irregular character. 



Fig. 2. ^ . In this specimen aberration is confined to the 

 under surface of hind wings ; these have all the black spots well 

 defined, including a large quadrate one about middle of the costa, 

 and an elongate one on the abdominal margin towards anal angle. 



KiGHARP South. 



