160 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



female is seen in the male, really a not uncommon local form of 

 aberration. The only really gynandromorphous example described 

 appears to be the following : 



a. I have just had emerge from pupa a very curious specimen of Odonestis 

 potatoria. The right antenna is that of a male, whilst every other portion of the 

 insect is exactly the same as in au ordinary female (Wright, Entom., xvi., p. 188). 



The following examples recorded by Schultz appear to us to be not 

 distinctly gynandromorphic. There are an endless number of similar ? 

 specimens of dark (so-called male) coloration, and of $ specimens 

 of light (so-called female) coloration, in various collections : 



/3. — ? of $ colouring (Blandford, Ent., xviii., p. 128). 



y-v. — 2 ?s of (? colouring (Mathew, Ent., xiv., p. 68; Wellman. I.e., p. 227). 



£-£. — ? with $ , and $ with ? colouring (Bellier de la Chavignerie, Bull. 

 Soc. Ent. Fr., 1887, p. 183). 



1]. — ? with <? colouring, Wicken (Christy and Meldola, Proc. Essex Field 

 Club, hi., p. lxxxiii). 



9. — c? with the pale clay-coloured ? tint. In coll. Bernard, Dantzic 

 (Schultz, Illus. Wochenschr. fur Ent., ii., p. 414). 



1. — c? with ? colouring, similar to 9. In coll. Gleissner, Berlin floe. cit.J . 



Variation.— This species is exceedingly variable, and some 

 of the forms are most interesting, as bearing on the question of 

 sexually dimorphic coloration, tor, although normally, as we have 

 already stated, the sexes are distinctively coloured, yet, in some 

 places, the males frequently occur with the pale yellow coloration, 

 usually supposed to distinguish the female, whilst, in others, the females 

 approach the darker brown coloration normally distinctive of the 

 male. This tendency is generally only observable in an occasional 

 aberration that will occur among a comparatively large number of 

 specimens, but here and there it almost becomes racial, e.g., dark 

 females occur in unusually large proportion at Angmering, and 

 pale yellow males in the fen districts of the eastern counties of England. 

 On the other hand, Caradja positively states (Iris, viii., p. 11 3) that, 

 in northern Europe, the males are often light yellow and the females 

 dark brown, suggesting that this inversion of colour in the sexes 

 takes place racially and side by side in certain districts, a result 

 which we much doubt, and he heightens this suggestion by stating 

 that the extreme forms might well be arranged as ab. inversa. Our 

 own experience forbids this association, and points to an entirely 

 different effective cause in producing unusually pale males in some 

 localities, and unusually dark females in others. Still, pale $ s and 

 dark $ s are sometimes reported from the same district. Thus, John- 

 son notes, "at Armagh, a $ in which the upper wings were 

 coloured as in the £ , and a $ with the coloration of the male." 

 Crass observes, "several light males and dark females bred from 

 Blyth," and Wilson, "a S coloured like the $ , and a ? coloured like 

 the $ , at Richmond, Yorks/' but tins association is not usual, and 

 there are many localities which produce dark-coloured females 

 without producing light males, e.g., Dollman says : " At Angmering 

 the males vary from light chocolate to purplish-brown (like EutricHa 

 <j 11c re i folia) ; the females, from plain pale fawn to chocolate-brown 

 and amber ; from two years' breeding from larvae, from Angmering, 

 only three females have been bred which have no trace of male 

 coloration." Gordon notes : " At Corsemalzie, the females bred 

 vary a great deal, some are light, others very dark; the hindwings 



