32 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of the lower half of the wings is powdered with black, and 14 

 specimens are without any powdering, beautifully red-golden. 

 Consequently here also great variabiUty of the eleus characters 

 prevails. 



(2) Neapolitan Eggs reared at Freiburg, — By the kindness of 

 Dr. Schiemenz, on May 19th, 1888, I received the first batch of 

 eggs of phloeas from Naples, which were mostly laid on dry pieces 

 of the leaf or stem of Rumex acetosella. These were gummed on 

 to flowering plants of Rumex acetosella^ where they developed 

 quite satisfactorily in a room at a temperature from 20°-21° C, 

 as did the eggs of several batches which succeeded one another 

 up to May 24th. Some 70 larvae emerged between May 22nd 

 and 26th. These are not at first louse-shaped, but of the shape 

 of ordinary larvae, bright yellow in colour, and covered with a 

 down of long hairs. They were already louse-shaped on June 

 4th, and of the green colour of the sorrel-leaves, some also with 

 a bright vinous-red dorsal stripe and subspiracular stripes. They 

 ate the chlorophyll-layer of the tender leaf from below, leaving 

 only the epidermis. They are tardy and sluggish in their move- 

 ments, and only leave a leaf, when it is entirely demolished. 

 When they were almost full-fed (June 7th), they ate the whole 

 leaves like other larvae. Many remain entirely green, while 

 others exhibit the bright vinous-red longitudinal stripes on a 

 green ground, an adaptation of colour to the reddish stems of 

 many plants of sorrel, the red of which is nearly of the same 

 tint as that of the larvae. Both forms of the larvae thus possess 

 excellent protective coloration. 



I proved some years ago for Vanessa prorsa-levana that the 

 black and yellow colouring of the larvae, which occurs with this 

 species, is no way connected with the variabiUty of the butterfly. 

 In order to preclude any such suggestion here, I reared the green 

 and the red larvae separately ; and here also I found, that the 

 variations of the perfect insect are in no way related to the colouring 

 of the larvcB, Thirteen butterflies from the green and 22 from 

 the red larvae exhibited no constant differences. 



From June 16th the larvae fastened themselves up for pupa- 

 tion, which took place between June 21st and 28th. The whole 

 of the larvae were now before pupation divided into two lots, of 

 which lot A was for the future kept in the temperature of an 

 ordinary room, while lot B was placed in a lower temperature, 

 in order to see what changes in the colour of the perfect insect 

 could be thereby produced. 



Lot A, — Pupae in an ordinary room temperature. The tem- 

 perature of the room from June 9th to 13th was 20° C. or a little 

 more, and from June 14th to 22nd, 18° C. During this time 35 

 butterflies emerged. Of these 8 were decidedly var. eleus ; the 

 rest exhibited no black powdering of the red-gold, but all indeed 

 had broader margins of a deeper black and larger black spots 



