96 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



ina, and some very large carmelita j the Swallows dictcea and dictaoides, 

 dromedarius, ziczac, a good row of trepida, concluding with a choice assort- 

 ment of ckaonia and dodonea, very distinct and perfect, the whole of this 

 part of the collection is in excellent order. 



THE ORIGIN OF APTEROUS FEMALES 



In the Genera Phigalia, Nyssa, Hyhemia and Cheimatobia. 



By ERNEST ANDERSON. 



One of the first surprises to the Young Naturalist, on commencing the 

 study of lepidoptera, is to find that many species have females, either with 

 rudimentary wings or entirely lacking them ; still after the first feeling of 

 surprise the fact is accepted, and, as a rule, nothing more is thought of the 

 matter. Personally, I have never quite got over this apparent "freak of 

 nature," and have vainly enquired of more experienced entomologists, 

 and have searched in books for the why and wherefore of its being so, but 

 without results ; until at last there has sprung up in my own mind a theory 

 which I am conscious is weak and perhaps untenable, but which I will en- 

 deavour to propound, and trust that any of my readers who disagree with me 

 will not rest with controverting my theory, but will advance one of their own 

 on the subject. 



To start with we must take as an axiom the Darwinian text, that the off- 

 spring nearly always inherit the peculiarities of their parents, which, I think, 

 most of my readers will readily allow ; but we must go a step further than 

 this and say that given a pair of any lepidopterous species, of the offspring 

 nearly all the females will resemble the original female, and the males the 

 original male. That this is so we have abundant proof in the very many species 

 that have a difference in the sexes, both in shape, colouring and markings, such 

 as 0. potatoria, A, prunaria, K vespertaria, &c, the occurrence of a male with 

 the female markings or vice versa, being of very great variety. Thus generation 

 after generation we find the females resembling the parent female and the 

 males the parent male, each inheriting the peculiarities of what 1 may call its 

 particular parent. Now arguing by analogy, I maintain that since this is the 

 case in the colouring, etc, it is equally so in other respects and that if one of 

 the original parents was what we term a " cripple," that is, had its wings im- 

 perfectly developed, its offspring would to a certain degree also inherit the same 

 peculiarity, and a large proportion be " cripples " also chiefly of the same sex. 



