1923 ] The Varieties of Monecphora hicincta 89 
THE VARIETIES OF MONECPHORA BICINCTA FROM 
THE POINT OF VIEW OF A CYTOLOGIST. 
Alice M. Boeing. 
Wellesley College. 
A curious case of distribution in Monecphora hicincta and 
its variety ignipecta was called to my attention by Mr. A. P. 
Morse in the summer of 1921. Since then I have been studying 
the chromosomes of these forms to see whether a study of the 
internal cell phenomena would throw any light on their rela- 
tionship. 
In Psyche for February 1921 (vol. 28), Mr. Morse describes 
the case. The normal range of Monecphora hicincta var. hicincta, 
the form with red bands on its wings, is from southern New 
Jersey south, while the normal range of Monecphora hicincta 
var. ignipecta, the common black form, is from southern New 
Jersey north. Mr. Morse found a number of the variety hicincta 
near Norridgewock, Maine, while the variety ignipecta was taken in 
all other localities around. It is possible that that particular 
spot is subject to some peculiar environmental conditions which 
may have caused the banded form to appear there, but it does 
not seem likely that this aberrant colony could be due to en- 
vironmental causes, when its environment, at least as far as 
general climatic conditions are involved, was apparently more 
like that of the nearby black colonies than of the other banded 
colonies in the south. What is the genetic status of these two 
forms? They apparently breed true within their range of dis- 
tribution, since such aberrant groups as described by Mr. Morse 
are not frequent. They must then be genetically stable and 
according to present-day genetical theories there should be some 
physical basis for their phenotypic differences. Is the change 
from one to the other great enough to involve a visible cytolo- 
gical differentiation or is it a mutation in one gene of one chro- 
mosome as in the races of Drosophila and therefore not visible 
by present cytological methods? 
