16 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



and some male specimens vary very much from our white type. Sometimes the 

 change is very slight indeed, merely two or three coloured, marks or spots 

 on the upper wings, indicating the change ; some specimens appear with 

 more marking occasionally, these markings are further developed upon other 

 specimens, but in all cases seen by me, these markings are invariably placed 

 in the exact position held by the marking upon female specimens, but are 

 more spotty. I have heard it said they are 11 splashed about." In a few 

 specimens, the marking takes the exact form and colour of the female, 

 even when the white under wing is retained, but the variation goes further 

 still ; some male specimens have the dark underwings of the females intensified, 

 that is, their underwings are darker than -any female's underwings I ever saw, 

 and still the variation goes on. Other specimens vary from the faintest 

 creamy yellow tinge on the upper-wings, without coloured markings, to 

 bright buffs, having distinctly red-ochre female-like markings, and some of 

 these have very dark under-wings and under-sides. There are some speci- 

 mens which cannot possibly be separated from the females by their colour and 

 markings, and unless examined on the underside for the tufted hind-legs, 

 might be pronounced females by the most acute entomologist. The red 

 tufted hind legs settle the matter, as the female never has tufts on the last 

 pair of thighs, but the male of this species always has. 



In 1851 or 52 I was shewn a number of E. humuli, which were then called 

 Shetland Ghosts, in London, but I did not buy any of them. They were 

 males, and were more or less spotted on a white ground, and an old friend of 

 mine got some of them which I have seen several times since in his beautiful 

 and rich collection. These, and a single poorly marked recent specimen pur- 

 chased from a London dealer by another friend, are all that I have seen from 

 Shetland until now. Mr. Curzon wrote me from Shetland that the silvery 

 males were commonest, and when I saw his captures I observed that " most of 

 the specimens were not tawny/' He placed his duplicate boxes at my service 

 most liberally, and I picked therefrom six different forms of humuli males, and 

 one ordinary coloured female. Two of the males are silvery on all the wings, 

 and more or less marked with reddish ochre markings. One is silvery on the 

 upperwings, but has dark underwings. The other three are buffs of various 

 shades, with dark underwings, one of them is devoid of any red markings, 

 these were the most interesting specimens in the box of duplicates. It seems 

 to me that the captures of an amateur entomologist give us a more correct 

 idea of the products of a district than those of a professional do. I give 

 credit to the latter for great perseverance, but I cannot take his captures in 

 this case as a guide to my opinion of the variation of the insects of a given 

 district (as it would hardly pay him to bring ordinary specimens home) in 



