SESIA STELLATARUM. 5 



shorter. The frenulum has been already referred to (anted, vol. iii., 

 p. 502). It is difficult to say that there is any sexual difference in 

 wing colour or pattern, or in the lateral abdominal tufts. The $ 

 possesses, but extremely small, by the side of the 2nd abdominal 

 segment, the fans so well developed in some Sphingids (Chapman). 



Gynandromorphism. — Only two gynandromorphous specimens 

 appear to have been described. The sexual differences being so slight, 

 great care should be taken in recording such. Those described are : 



a. Halved. Right side $ , left side £ . Right pair of wings ? , left $ 

 (smaller". Right antenna larger than the left. Right side of the body more ? , 

 more voluminous, left side <? . On the abdomen traces of both sets of sexual organs 

 present. Bred in i8q6. In Hartmann coll. (Schultz, ///. Woch. fur Ent., ii., p 395). 



/3. Preponderantly $ . Right antenna <? , left ? , All else purely <r . Bred 

 a long time since from a larva found near Ratibor by Hyckel. In Hyckel coll. 

 (Schultz, ///. Zeits. fur Ent., iii., p. 137). 



Variation. — This species, in spite of its remarkably wide 

 distribution, is not subject to a very great deal of variation. Bower 

 records a specimen captured at Sandgate that measures only 30mm. 

 from tip to tip of its forewings. Piochard de la Brulerie describes 

 (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1863, p. 666) an albinistic aberration, the 

 ground-colour of both pairs of wings being greyish -white, the 

 hind tinged with yellow, and with the dark border almost 

 typical. Mosley notes one with the hindwings very dark, 

 and suffused with orange-brown. Oberthiir observes that the 

 Askold examples have darker brown hindwings than those Irom 

 Europe, and that the same form occurs in Japan. Strangely, 

 Fletcher mentions that the specimens from North China and Japan 

 are very typical. The Teneriffe examples are also said to have 

 the hindwings somewhat deeper brown. Bartel says ( Palaeark. Gross- 

 Schmett., ii., p. 217) that "aberrations have been observed in 

 which there is a broad, velvety-black transverse band on the fore- 

 w r ings. Other specimens vary considerably in the tint of the hind- 

 wings. Thus Ochsenheimer refers (Die Schmett., iv., p. 175) to one 

 in which the hindwings show no yellow at all, but are unicolorous 

 black-brown ; also the one described by Kerr Karl Uffeln, of 

 Nietberg (Iris, viii., p. 170), agrees with the above specimen of 

 Treitschke's [sic] in certain respects. It came from a normal 

 autumnal larva and pupa, and the brown colour of the hind- 

 wings extends to the whitish-mixed abdomen." These alone 

 are sufficient to show that there is some variation in European 

 examples in the tint of the hindwings, and this is borne out by the 

 specimens in the British Museum coll., where it is quite clear that 

 local or aberrational variation exceeds manifold the geographical 

 variation. This is exactly what might be expected with a species, 

 individuals of which travel many miles, possibly hundreds of miles, 

 and so must cross practically throughout their whole range within a 

 few years. One of the most remarkable matters connected with this 

 well-known species was its re-description by Cosmovici in Le 



* Caradja notes in his preface (Iris, viii., p. 2) that he wrote to Cosmovici 

 repeatedly, asking if he could see his types or for lurther information, but never re- 

 ceived a word in reply, and this, coupled with the fact that, although Cosmovici had not 

 been able to name his Geometrids except sambucaria, he had been fortunate enough 

 to discover two or three new Erebias. a new Theclid, and this new Mac/oglossa, in 

 Rouraania, leads one to suppose that the publication of this note is due to sheer 

 ignorance, and is not to be taken seriously. 



