﻿and Meganostoma among the Pierinse.) But many 

 species are so sensitive to the almost imperceptible 

 changes of local climate and environment, as to be most 

 unstable, as if they were constantly striving to adjust 

 themselves to the ever changing conditions, with the result 

 that no two specimens of the same species are quite alike 

 in pattern or colours. 



Well then, seeing that a boundless variety of beautiful 

 forms and colour-patterns have during the past century 

 been evolved in the vegetable and animal kingdoms by 

 artificial or mechanical selection and various other 

 scientific methods, by which the most glorious and 

 marvellous beauties have resulted, presenting to our con- 

 templation what sometimes seems like a new creation, it 

 has often been impressed upon my mind that if our 

 collectors in exotic countries could devote a portion of 

 their time to the breeding by artificial selection of the 

 lepidoptera, especially the more unstable species, adopt- 

 ing as much as possible the methods pursued by Florists, 

 and the breeders of Fowls, Pigeons, &c, it would be 

 possible, within a measurable period, to produce forms 

 among the lepidoptera more wonderful and beautiful than 

 anything yet dreamed of; and it would be especially 

 found that the colour reflections referred to above, would 

 become intensified, and textures would be so modified 

 and perfected, as to bring about the most startling results 

 — almost or quite equal to the creation of new and more 

 wonderful species. That this is no mere unsupported 

 theory, we may remind ourselves that even among British 

 and European lepidoptera some most interesting and 

 suggestive results have been attained by those entomo- 

 logists who have experimented in this direction. 



By these methods we might safely anticipate a great 

 accession of information relative to the laws by which the 

 differentiated forms which we are acquainted with have 

 been evolved. With regard to the Ornithoptera much 

 might thereby be learned. Some species, as I have 

 shewn in the first volume of this work, vary so remark- 

 ably that it would be quite imprudent to assume that we 

 have as yet become acquainted with all the possible or 

 existent aberrations of them. 0. Richmondia and 

 the series of forms belonging to the Poseidon group are 

 illustrations of this ; the variations of colour between 



m 



0. Aruana and 0. Urvilliana are other very suggestive 

 facts ; the tendency among the variations of 0. Poseidon 

 on the anterior wings for the green colours and marks to 

 occupy an increasing area of the wing, also seems, as I have 

 shown, to suggest the possibility of a form in which the 

 whole of the wing would be green, except perhaps a small 

 portion of the subcosta and the outer margin. Then 

 again we have among the species of the genus Pompeop- 

 tera the case of Dohertyi, where the 3 is entirely, or 

 almost entirely, black, and some of the ? ? quite immac- 

 ulate and unicolorous. 



Surely these phenomena, not to mention the numerous 

 instances among the other groups of Lepidoptera, are a 

 strong hint to us of what we may find possible by 

 artificial selection and breeding. At any rate, even if 

 there were great difficulties in carrying out my sug- 

 gestions (and there would be), they would not be 

 insurmountable to an intelligent, ardent, and persevering 

 naturalist, and they would amply compensate all who 

 engaged in the undertaking, besides adding largely to our 

 knowledge of some the most deeply interesting phenomena 

 of Nature. 



As will be remembered, I called attention in Vol. I. 

 to the singular fact that all the examples of 0. Croesus, 

 3 that were bred in confinement proved to be of a 

 brighter orange than those captured by Wallace and 

 others ; for many of the latter were often of a red orange, 

 almost as fiery as that of the 3 of 0. Lydiiis. _ And whilst 

 the colour reflections of the posterior wings in the 

 captured examples are usually of a deep olive green 

 tint, those of the artificially-bred examples are generally 

 emerald green, often so vivid that in some positions the 

 insect appears to be emerald green rather than orange ! — 

 a somewhat analogous phenomenon to that of Pompeoptera 

 magellanus. 



I might suggest en passant, that the experiments in arti- 

 ficial breeding and selection, if they could be applied to 

 Humming Birds, Trogons, and Birds of Paradise (and 

 there is no reason why this may not be done some day) 

 would bring about results even more wonderful and start- 

 ling than among the lepidoptera. 



