6 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



shell grey, with two broad brown bands and one black one near the top, the 

 extreme tip of the shell in this very pretty variety is white. I have also found 

 specimens with twenty distinct brown bands. Other forms I have found are 

 red with seventeen brown bands and red with no bands. In both these the 

 spire of the shell is white, but red forms also occur in which it is of the same 

 colour. There are also varieties with the ground colour olive green, with 

 fine broad black bands and four narrow ones, yellowish grey with seven 

 brownish bands, grey with no band — lip of shell black, yellow with no bands 

 — grey spire, and orange yellow with spire of same colour. Yery young 

 specimens bred in my aquarium are brown, and of a shape quite different to 

 that of older ones, being in fact inclined to a fusiform construction, 



(To be continued.) 



CALIMORPHA HERA AGAIN. 



By JOHN E. ROBSON. 



Among the articles of my creed as a Lepidopterist, I may mention an utter 

 want of belief in this handsome species as a British insect. That it has 

 occurred is not to be denied, but that it is a genuine Britisher I cannot 

 admit, nor as yet that it is a naturalized foreigner. It is curious how very 

 few of the " reputed " species of Doubleday's first edition have established 

 their claim for admission to our lists, and equally curious to notice how easily 

 some species are admitted, and how persistently others are kept out. If a 

 well known Entomologist takes a single specimen, it is quite enough. If 

 species occur two or three years in succession it is more than sufficient. Hera 

 was admitted in the "Entomologists' Annual" for .1872, was inserted in 

 the Supplement to Doubleday's " Synonymic List/' and, of course, is in 

 Mr. South's list also. It is said to have been taken in Devonshire in 1882, 

 1883, 1884, and again in 1885, but I have never yet met with any one who 

 believes in it. That it has really been taken at Starcross there i<* not any 

 doubt. I do not know Mr. W& Brooks, who was the first to announce its 

 capture, but Mr. J. Jager can undoubtedly be relied on. The question there- 

 fore to be considered now, is not whether the species has been taken at Star- 

 cross, but how it came there. The specimen taken in 1871, on the strength 

 of which the name was admitted to our lists, was undoubtedly introduced 

 among imported plants. If the recently captured specimens have been intro- 

 duced in pupa, it must have been done intentionally, and the specimen taken 

 by Mr. Jager being of the variety Lutescens, points to France, where that 

 form is not uncommon, as their probable home. Planting Hera to find it 



