174 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The pupae remaioed in the incubator at 26-29*4° C, and 

 there emerged — 



On July 8th, 8 butterflies. 

 9th, 20 

 10th, 10 

 „ nth, 8 



Together 46 



The pupal rest was therefore only 5-Q days. 



These 46 butterflies are all brilliant red, without the dark 

 shading of the ground colour, which is especially marked with 

 the var. polaris, and arises from the black scales, which are 

 scattered between the red ones. The black spots of the fore 

 wing are tolerably large in six specimens, but in all the rest thej' 

 are relatively small. Eeckoning, with Von Eeichenau,* the spots 

 on the costa as 1, 2, and 3, those in cells 1, 2, and 3 as spots 4, 5, 

 and 6 ; the spots 4, 5, and 6 especially are smaller than usual. 

 On the basis of his excellent researches on the phyiogenetic 

 significance of the marking of Vanessa, Dixey t has recently 

 proposed another enumeration of these spots ; he designates the 

 spots of the costa as I, II, III, and IV, and sees in them the 

 vestiges of rows of spots running transversely across the wing, 

 the units of which he designates by the Arabic numerals, begin- 

 ning from the costa. Eeichenau's spots 4, 5, and 6 are called by 

 Dixey 8, 7, 6 ; his sixth coincides with the sixth of Eeichenau. 

 I shall adopt Dixey's enumeration on account of its phyiogenetic 

 foundation. 



Second experiment with urticcB, 1886. — A large number of 

 eggs and recently-emerged larvae were found, on July 6th, on a 

 mountain above the Giessbach, in canton Bern, 1200 ft. above 

 the lake of Brienz, about 3000 ft. above the sea. These, when 

 brought to Freiburg, grew rapidly in the incubator at 26-29*4° C, 

 pupated between July 19th and 21st, and emerged between July 

 23rd and 26th ; thus the whole metamorphosis from egg to 

 butterfly was completed in 17-20 days. 



The 36 butterflies exhibited nothing special ; they were 

 brilliantly coloured, as are all specimens of V. urticce with us, 

 and they had large black spots, for the most part somewhat 

 larger than the specimens of the first experiment. One speci- 

 men has, however, the spots 5 and 6 smaller than any example 

 of the first experiment. I cannot anywhere recognize constant 

 and important differences from the specimens of the previous 

 experiment. 



'•= Von Eeichenau, " Die Ziichtung des Nesselfalters," in ' Kosmos,' v. 12, 

 p. 47, 1882. 



\ Frederick A. Dixey, " On the Phyiogenetic Significance of the wing- 

 markings in certain genera of the NymphalidsB," in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 

 1890. 



