VARIATION. 
7 
the larvse. But I would ask what effect (direct or indirect) can 
the actinic rays of the sun have on those larvse which have 
not the slightest trace of chlorophyll in their pigment. Noctu^ 
larvse, which feed on roots and never come under the influence 
of sunlight at all; wood-borers as the Hepialidcs, SesiidcB, etc., 
Prays curtisellus ; richly-coloured, densely-haired larvse as 
ArctiidcB and Acronycta, and so on, many of the species of which 
show melanic variation. I am afraid I must own that at present 
I am unable to see any connection between cause and effect in 
this direction, although it certainly is a matter worthy of the 
most careful consideration. 
Although I thus still venture to differ from Lord Walsingham, 
I must candidly confess that his remarks have modified my 
previously formed opinions, and' that I should not now feel 
inclined to give the probable action of sunlight the short shrift 
I gave it in a previous paragraph. 
{To be continued.^ 
Variation. 
Vars. of Hypsipetes elutata. — I have had considerable experience 
with this species from various districts both among sallow and Vacci- 
niu 7 H ; the former specimens are, as a rule, much larger and the green 
of a paler hue, and nothing like as variable as the Vaccinium specimens. 
Of course the sallow ones vary. There is a form on our high moors 
that has an ocellated spot on the upper wing that does not appear so 
striking in the sallow feeders, if at all. Last season on the high grounds 
(moors) I paid special attention to the elevations, and started at the 
top of a very wet boggy place among the Vacciniu 7 n^ here they were 
small and nearly black, some quite so ; as I came down the hill where 
it was much drier, the species swarmed ; these were nearer to the 
sallow form, in fact, some were mixed, but of an intermediate colour. 
Still lower, most of them were of the sallow type, larger and of the green 
hue, although there are no sallows within miles of the spot. The 
weather was bad and the species soon got worn, although, as it was, I 
got some charming varieties. — J- B- Hodgkinson. March 1891. 
Xanthia aurago var. fuscata. — I find this variety at the rate of 
about one in twenty. This species is occasionally abundant here, and 
in 1875 every patch of sugar was crowded with them, and I sent out 
hundreds about the country. — W. Holland, Reading. 
Asphalia diluta var. nubilata. — I sometimes get the var with three 
bands in the Basingstoke district. — Id. 
Variety of Phigalia pilosaria. — On February 7th, 1891, I took 
one specimen of a dark olive-green (nearly black) variety of the above 
species in a wood at Otley. I only obtained one other insect which 
was a rather light type of the same species. All the trees in the part of 
the wood where I took both insects were covered, even to the fine twigs. 
