1892.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



19 



is an increasing proportion of the species with narrow wings. 1 have 

 two such from Wallasey, and I occasionally tak^ it here with similarly 

 narrow wings. One of my Hartlepool specimens with remarkably 

 narrow wings, taken at sugar in July last, was, if I am not mistaken, 

 exhibited at the same Society on November 5th, by Dr. Buckell. 

 The moorland form bred by the late John Sang, and still more freely 

 by my friend Mr. Gardner, is smaller and more richly coloured, and 

 the tendency to narrow wings is more pronounced. Of five specimens 

 given me by Mr. Gardner, three of them have the narrow form of 

 wing. My only Shetland examples are eight from Unst and six 

 of them have narrow wings. I possess but one Irish speci- 

 men and I do not know the exact locality, but it also has narrow 

 wings. Curiously enough Mr. Reid sent me two specimens this year 

 as festiva, both taken at Pitcaple, Aberdeenshire ; one of them is 

 reddish in hue, is of the larger size, but has narrow wings; the 

 other is cold dark brown like the Unst insects, of the smaller size, and 

 has broad wings. Reasoning from my own series then, I would expect 

 to find the species in higher latitudes, with this peculiarity still more 

 marked, and can readily believe that in Iceland or in Norway, only 

 the narrow winged form may be found. Be this as it may, the 

 breadth of the forewing cannot be relied upon by those who would 

 make two species of it. — John E. Robson, Hartlepool. 



Varieties of Abraxas Grossulariata. — Mr. Gregson has 

 occasionally exhibited one or two drawers full of extreme varieties of 

 this species as the result of one year's breeding. No one else being 

 able to show similar results, doubts have been expressed as to the 

 genume nature of the exhibits. Mr. Gregson claimed that his " strain " 

 of this insect, being the result of thirty years careful breeding from 

 selected forms, was absolutely certain to produce varieties. He 

 generally reared from 4,000 to 6,000 larvae, and paired the best forms 

 for the next year's stock. To prove the correctness of his statement 

 he, in the spring of last year (i8gi), sent me 50 young larvae taken at 

 random from the progeny of the previous year's pairings. These I kept 

 by themselves, and they eventually produced 33 imagines ; 2 failed to 

 emerge from pupa, and 15 died without pupating. For purposes of 

 comparison I obtained a similar number of wild larvae from gooseberry 

 growing in a lane here. These produced 44 perfect insects i cripple, 

 4 failing to pupate and i being accidentally killed. The imagines 

 from these wild larvae were all of the most ordinary typical form, Mr. 

 Gregson's larvae gave me one very fine dark variety, and several other 

 good forms, whilst the palest of them were many degrees darker than 

 any of those from wild larvae. My experiment, therefore, is conclusive 

 enough, and shows that Mr. Gregson has really succeeded in 



