110 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



By the courtesy of the Editor I am enabled to reply to Mr. Tugwell's re- 

 marks in the last number, although Iliad previously trespassed upon his 

 space by the deferred conclusion of my previous paper. 



After a silence of thirteen years, Mr. Tugwell now for the first time ex- 

 presses doubts as to whether — to put it plainly— my brother's larvae did not 

 get mixed up. To this he himself must reply, but it is much to be regretted 

 that Mr. Tugwell did not satisfy his doubts at the time, by himself breeding 

 from Melitoti, or at least express them while Meliloti was still to be found 

 there, so that further observations might have been made. To his suggestions 

 I need only point out that even if other larvse had been introduced with the 

 food, which, from the habits of Zi/gcena larvae in the young stage is impossible, 

 as they invariably fall off the food-plant at the slightest disturbance — 'that 

 would not dispose of the original larvae. To ask us to suppose that as Tri- 

 folii larvae were introduced, Meliloti died off to balance the account, is surely 

 going too far in support of any theory. The fact of Meliloti locally repro- 

 ducing, is common ground with both of us, as that result would follow, at 

 all events for a time, whether Meliloti was a species or only a degenerate 

 form. 



Mr. Tugwell is in error in saying that Doubleday's opinion on the matter 

 was universally accepted by English lepidopterists. There was always a 

 strong minority against the view, a minority whose numbers steadily increased 

 with our knowledge of the insect, and as the value of Meliloti for exchange 

 purposes went down. Mr. Doubleday's opinion, it should be remembered, 

 was formed from the appearance of the perfect insect alone, without any 

 knowledge of the egg, larva, or pupation of our New Forest specimens. 



On page 54 of the present volume of the " Young Naturalist, Mr. Tug- 

 well mentions in italics that the bred specimens were bred in a heated 

 greenhouse. Why the italics ? Does he attach any importance to the fact ? 

 Heat may change a form, but surely he does not contend that it could change 

 a species in one generation ? 



As regards the difference in manner of pupation, Mr. Tugwell again is not 

 quite correct. He is right so far as the large late form of Trifolii found in 

 marshes is concerned, but wrong as regards the small earlier form of Trifolii 

 found in dry places. In the former the cocoon is as the latter, and Meliloti 

 it is difficult to find. 



To sum up the facts then we have the imagines, taken at the same time 

 and place, with every intermediate gradation from Meliloti at one extreme to 

 Trifolii at the other. The manner of pupation of Meliloti identical with 

 that of one form of Trifolii, the larvae differing only in the greater or lesser 

 size of the spots, particually in the younger stages, and lastly we have Trifolii 



