62 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



small li^ht spots near the base of the wing ; behind, the pearly white broadens 

 out towards the disk ; underwings pearly white, with a broad rayed dark hind 

 portion having faint pearly dots round its margins ; no tails ; expanse over 

 5 in. on the West coast. These are the females of P. merope : — 



Variety 1. — Has underwings slightly suffused with ochre. 



Variety 2. — Underwings bright red ochre. 



Variety 3. — All the pearly white spaces bright red-brown ochre. 

 In all the wings expand from 4 to 4j ins. Common on the South African 

 coast, always small as compared with West coast specimens, and commonly 

 ochreous. These are the females of P. merope also ; the males in South 

 Africa being like the males of merope in West Africa, but always much 

 smaller. My mistake seems to have been, that I neglected to say P. 

 Jiypocoon was the female of P. merope ; this explained I think I may fairly 

 say I have answered our good friend's challenge to " name a case to the 

 contrary." I was assuming everybody knew P. merope and hypocoon 

 as well as I did ! Now I have differentiated them fully, perhaps the 

 question will not be so obscure; but in answer to his further question — "I 

 ask further, " if there are no such intermediates, or if there are but few. 

 Why is it so ?" I confess I cannot tell him why. Nature has not revealed 

 all her why's to us, but whilst on this subject let us see if we cannot find 

 cases nearer home than Africa. First, We all know Sinapis males and fe- 

 males differ, yet it often happens that the female markings approach the male 

 so closely that we depend upon the form of the wing (its rounder tip) rather 

 than upon the markings, for sexual separation, whilst at other times it is 

 devoid of the usual of mark at the apex of the superior wing. Again Pota- 

 toria, male and female differ. I possess light males, creamy buff and light 

 females, the Wicken Een form, creamy buffs, and dark females, but then Mr. 

 Bobson's question, " How many specimens have they been selected from," 

 may have somy force here, but passing B. Trifolii let us look at B. 

 quercus : here I think we may fairly reach safe ground. Taking B. quercus 

 as figured by Hubner, and Westwood and Humphreys, both bad figures 

 I admit (perhaps the worst figures in each book), we have the South 

 of England form with its straight band on superior wings and rounded 

 band on underwings ; the entire want of a basal patch, its rich fulvous 

 uniform colour in the male, and the same form of marking in the 

 female, almost straight across the wings, and the unicolorous, but lighter 

 colour ; then the male feeds on brambles, &c, in lanes (H J).) Then 

 we have the rich brown males of our coast, with the invariable great light 

 shoulder patch, and great rich coloured females, much larger than the 

 southern quercus, requiring only one year to complete their meta- 



