1250 ON TWO INSTANCES OF COLOUR VARIATION IN BUTTERFLIES, 
ON TWO INSTANCES OF COLOUR VARIATION IN 
BUTTERFLIES. 
By a. Sidney Olliff, F.E.S. 
Tlie two butterflies which I venture to bring before the Society’s 
notice this evening illustrate the remarkable degree of variation 
to which the colour and markings of the lepidoptera are liable, 
even in those species which are commonly regarded as the most 
constant. The first of these is a specimen of Avhat I believe to be 
the well-known Pyrameis cardui or “ painted-lady,” a species which, 
with the exception of the valley of the Amazons and certain parts 
of South America, is found throughout the world. Contrary to 
the general rule of wide-ranging and much diff'nsed species, P. 
cardtu is usually very constant in its larger markings, and, there- 
fore, the singular aberration now described is of some interest. 
The specimen was captured some years ago by Mr. G. Masters at 
Bombala, New South Wales, and is remarkable for the absence of 
certain wing-markings and other charactei’s which may be summed 
up as follows : — The ground colour is of the usual salmon-red, 
inclining to orange-ochreous, varied with black markings, but the 
transverse discal markings which are always present on the fore- 
w'ing in typical P. cardui, between the median vein and the hind- 
margin, are entirely wanting ; the hind-marginal band is broader 
tow'ards the inner angle, the white spots on the apical portion of 
the wing being disposed as in’ the ordinary form ; the hindwung 
has the costal and hind-margins rather broadly blackish, and the 
disc, which is of the usual salmon-red colour, without markings ; 
parallel to the hind-margin is a row of moderately large white 
spots, situated between the veins, of which the one nearest the 
inner angle is ornamented with a few blue scales ; the fringe of 
both wings (as in the typical form) is alternately black and white. 
Beneath the forewing corresponds ■with the uj)perside in the 
absence of the discal markings ; whiti.sh externally suATused with 
yellow^ -ochreous, a conspicuous wdiite marking at the end of the 
discoidal cell, bordered internal!}’ and externally by a bold black 
