45 



varieties of species being respectively coloured and marked in 

 accordance with the peculiar character of their surroundings ; but in 

 a short paper of this kind it is not possible to instance more examples. 

 We will now pass on to a consideration of reproduction of varieties. 



In the observations of Boarmia repandata var. conversaria it has 

 been shown that in a portion of the progeny of a banded female 

 nearly fifty per cent, favoured that parent. This fact is the result 

 of the action of the laws of inheritance. 



With the view of further illustrating how strong is this tendency to 

 inherit the coloration of a parent, I exhibit four series of bred 

 Cidaria truncata (russata). The four series represent the progeny of 

 the captured females you see lettered respectively A. B. C. D. All 

 the specimens of each set or brood are arranged in double columns 

 above their proper female parents. The examples in the first column 

 of each set more particularly favour the parent, except in the matter 

 of size. (It is well-known that individuals of summer broods of 

 Lepidoplera vary in size from individuals of spring broods.) In no 

 case was anything known of the male parent of either of the series of 

 C. truncata ; but we see that a large proportion of each series favour 

 the female parent, and this is sufficient to show, that at least on one 

 side, the parental coloration and device of the wings of a moth are 

 transmitted to the progeny. In North Devon, where the female 

 Cidaria truncata were captured, the form A. is predominant. In 

 the case on the table, you will see five other captured specimens 

 of this species lettered E. F. G. H. I. These examples are 

 added to show the whole range of variation of truncata, in the coast 

 district between Woody Bay and Lynton, in North Devonshire. 



If you look at the series A. and B. you will see that nearly all the 

 individuals of A. are of the same form as the female parent, whereas 

 in B. sixteen examples only favour the female parent, ten others are 

 in coloration something like the female parent of series D., and two 

 specimens are of the form A. From these facts I am inclined to 

 suppose, that the male parent of the A. series was of the same form as 

 the female of that series, and that the female parent of series B. paired 

 with a male of the coloration of the £>. female. Of course, this infer- 

 ence is ideal, and I only put forward the hypothesis that you may be 

 induced to prove or disprove it by breeding this or other polymorphic 

 species from parents which are either of different or identical forms. 



I am strongly of opinion that by carefully selecting males and 

 females to breed from, we might ultimately get nearly entire broods 

 of a particular form of almost any species of Lepidoptera that will 



