510 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



Selys). Sometimes 3 + 4 + 5+6 form one blotch separate from 

 1 and 2 (= ab. communimacula, Selys), whilst in the most extreme 

 forms 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5+6 form a single irregular blotch (= ab. 

 conjuncta, n. ab.) ; other intermediate stages also occur. Aclkin 

 notices the capture of a specimen at Folkestone, 1892, with 6 reduced 

 to a mere dot ; Hawes, two examples, bred from pupse, obtained July, 

 1876, on the railway banks at Oakleigh Park, in both of which 3, 4 and 

 5 are absent, and 1 and 2 much contracted ; whilst Battley obtained 

 an example at Bere Eegis with 3 reduced to a dot, and 6 distinctly 

 bisected by a nervure. South notes an apparently apterous J from a 

 pupa obtained at Folkestone, and Cbapman, one from Hereford, with 

 the larval head (compare, ante, p. 428), the latter not having been 

 successfully moulted at the pupal change (Knt. Bee, iv., p. 242). 

 With regard to the colour variation of this species, the most extreme 

 form is of a clear yellow (= ab. flava, Kobson), others are of a distinct 

 orange hue (ab. aurantia, n. ab.), others, again, of a red, entirely 

 different from the type, described as " terra-cotta," distinctly inter- 

 mediate between the orange and the crimson forms (= ab. intermedia, 

 n. ab.). Jagger records an example, from St. Ives, with one hind- 

 wing orange, the other red ; whilst Eobson notices another with one 

 hind-wing yellow, the other normally tinted. A form which suggests 

 a pathological failure of pigment has the ordinary crimson, of a pale 

 pinkish hue, often with a trace of yellow in it (= ab. miniata, n. ab.). 

 Fish records an example from Birkenhead, in which the yellow is 

 tinged with pink. Turner bred pale pink forms from pupse obtained 

 in 1888, at Keigate, and Skinner, bred examples from Caterham larvae, in 

 1887, with pink instead of crimson. Webb breeds specimens, at 

 Dover, showing gradations of pink in the colour of the hind-wings. 

 Harwood obtains the most interesting examples of these intermediate 

 forms, at Colchester, and we are indebted to him for specimens and 

 information. He does not capture the purely yellow form (= ab. flava), 

 but obtains the orange form ( = ab. aurantia), the red form described by 

 various writers as " salmon-red," or "terra-cotta " red (= ab. inter- 

 media), and the type. He also obtains the paler, pinkish form, ( = ab. 

 miniata), which might be mistaken for a washed-out ab. intermedia, 

 were not the examples in fine condition ; almost every possible inter- 

 mediate form between yellow and crimson can possibly be obtained. 

 Most of the Colchester aberrations were taken in 1891 and 1892, the 

 aberrant specimens emerging from the pupa later than the normally 

 coloured ones, pink and orange forms in those years being not 

 uncommon ; in 1892, too, the greatest year for the aberrations, there 

 were many dwarfs, which were otherwise fairly typical. In 1893, the 

 species was almost entirely absent, in 1894 and 1895 it was rare, but 

 in 1896 the species (and the aberrations) appeared to be recovering 

 lost ground, whilst in 1897 the property changed hands, and has 

 since been almost ruined entomologically. In 1891, the cocoons 

 were found high up on the grass culms, and in exposed situations ; in 

 later years very few were so exposed, the majority being situated low 

 down among the herbage. Bobson says that at Hartlepool " the yellow 

 form is pale honey colour, and although some of Harwood's examples 

 might be called flava, others are of a quite fiery-orange hue ; a dull pink 

 form also occurs at Hartlepool, which is very distinct in character." 

 The records of intermediate forms are rarely sufficiently definite for one 



