nS 
NYMPHALIDAE 
are absent in the female, the markings are similar to those 
of the male but larger. 
Life of Imago. The life of the imago lasts about five weeks. 
Aberration. The green of the under side is usually darker 
and the silver bands are more pronounced. 
The female is dimorphic, there being two distinct types 
of colouring : one with the normal fulvous ground colour, 
the other, known as ab. valezina, has the fulvous ground 
replaced by deep bronze-green ; in some examples it is a 
beautiful very deep bluish-green. This handsome aberration 
is confined to the female only, as no corresponding type of 
aberration is known to occur in the male. It is probable that 
ab. valezina represents the ancestral form of A. paphia , as 
from what we know of the earliest existing Lepidoptera, they 
lacked the brilliant colouring now prevailing in so many 
species, and in the world's earliest ages only white, black 
and brown types existed, therefore it is also likely that the 
recurrent white-spotted forms, so prevalent in the males of 
this species, may be instances of the reversion to a primitive 
type. # _ . 
In both typical A. paphia and ab. valezina, melanism 
occasionally occurs, especially in the New Forest, where some 
of the finest examples of the latter, ab. nigrtzina , Froh. have 
from time to time been captured. . 4 . paphia is also subject 
to partial albinism, there being white blotches on the wings. 
Usually there is a white spot on each wing ; in other in¬ 
dividuals only the fore wings are so spotted, and sometimes 
it occurs on one wing only. This phase of aberration is more 
prevalent in the male than in the female, but in the latter, 
in addition to the white spots, large pearly-green blotches 
of much the same colouring as in ab. valezina sometimes 
occur, thus exhibiting the colours of the normal fulvous type 
and part colouration of ab. valezina , the white spotting mostly 
occurring in the male. 
Gynandromorphism occasionally occurs in A . paphia ; 
specimens having one side either normal female or the ab. 
valezina , and the other side male, have been taken from time 
to time, chiefly in the New Forest, but such examples are 
always looked upon as of great rarity. 
