i66 THE BRITISH NATURALIST. [August 



of my readers, \\hen sent round in the Young Naturalist Exchange 

 Club Basket, three or four years ago by Mr. Reid, of Pitcaple, was 

 thought by some who saw it to be satura. I thous^ht then, and still 

 think, it was a rather curious example of exulis, but, however that 

 may be, I can say with certainty, after examining Mr. Tutt's 

 beautiful specimens, that this insect was not satura. Mr. Reid, 

 however, tells me he has undoubtedly turned up the true satura in his 

 own neio^hbourhood, and what is still more satisfactory, that he has 

 found the larvae. 



\'axessa antiopa. — I have to relate a most marvellous occurrence 

 in connection with this insect, one of those incidents that could not 

 be imagined or deemed possible in the ordinary course of events. It 

 is well-known that the butterfly is common m North America, and 

 the collectors there breed it in some numbers. Last year, my friend, 

 T^Ir. C. H. H. Walker, of Liverpool, received from a correspondent in 

 Canada lo pupae of V. antiopa, out of a batch of 30 his friend had 

 reared. On the first day after their arrival in Liverpool nine of them 

 emerged, five being of the ordinary Canadian form, and four being the 

 varietv laturnia. This remarkable variety differs from the type in a 

 most pronounced manner, the yellow margin being from tw'o to two- 

 and-a-half times the normal wadth, the usual velvety black bordering 

 on the inside, with the metallic blue spots of typical Antiopa, being 

 entirely wanting. This broad yellow border is more or less sprinkled 

 w-ith black scales, especially in one specimen, giving it quite a suffused 

 appearance. Of the two typical yellow spots on the costa, one, the 

 innermost, is absent. The specimens which I had the pleasure of 

 examining w4ien last at Liverpool, are all of large size and perfectly 

 developed. ^Ir. Walker had not much acquaintance with Antiopa, 

 and finding the forms in so nearly equal proportions, he rashly 

 concluded the difference was sexual ; for some time, therefore, no 

 notice was taken of the occurrence. When he learned that this was 

 not a sexual difference, he made enquiry about the form, but no one 

 appeared to know anythins: about it in this country. Mr. Fletcher, 

 the Canadian Dominion Entomologist, was communicated with, and he 

 replied that the variety in question was known in North America, but 

 was of such extreme rarity that although he had reared many thousands 

 of the butterfly in his desire to possess this particular form, he had 

 never even so much as seen it. The tenth of ]\Ir. Walker's pupae was 

 now opened, the imago was found to be fully developed and 

 proved to be another specimen of the variety. Thus, out of 10 pupae 

 taken at random from 30 all reared together, 5 proved to be of this 

 exceedingly rare variety. Strange to say, enquiry has elicited the fact 

 that not one of the remaining 20 pupae w^hich matured in Canada, 

 varied in the slightest degree from the usual type. One of the 



