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JOURNAL OF VARIATION 
No. 1. VoL. II. 
April 15 th, 1891. 
THE GENUS ACRONYCTA AND ITS ALLIES. 
By Dr. T. A. CHAPMAN. 
{Continued from page 228.) 
Ilate VII. Eggs of Viminia . — The eggs of Viminia 
have a close resemblance to each other ; this is 
brought out in the plate perhaps rather too strongly, 
owing to the circumstance already alluded to that 
in warm weather, and to some extent at all times, the eggs 
possess their most typical and perfect colouring for only a 
short time, and the artist has not in all instances seized this 
moment. There is therefore something to desire in nearly all 
these figures. It is, however, to be borne in mind, that these 
eggs are perhaps as difficult subjects for pen and pencil as it is 
possible to desire, and that the success, though qualified, is not 
meagre, but the chief cause for regret is in not seizing the 
moment when the egg is at its best to make the drawing. 
This is most notable in the case of auricoma, fig. 4, which has 
a greater definiteness of marking than the other species, 
approaching in this respect the egg of alni, to which it has 
considerable resemblance. Rumicis also has as its most 
definite point a distinctly paler area round the dark summit, 
giving a characteristic dotted aspect to the egg. Curiously 
this character has been well seized in the drawing of venosa, 
where it is less prominent. In the case of venosa the crenu- 
lations of the ribs have been drawn more distinctly than in 
the others, which they are not in reality, except that the ribs 
being fewer they are on a slightly larger scale and therefore 
more evident, but they do not, as shown, form a distinct 
system of transverse ribs. The groups showing imbricated 
method of laying is very correctly displayed in 3^^, venosa. In 
6 a and the order is well shown, but it is comparatively 
rarely that an egg is out of its place as shown in one case in 
