Mr. Doncaster collected from several localities, especially from two
areas near Malaga, about 5 miles apart. In one of these the female-like
males were, as usual, in a minority, but in the other these were
actually in great excess, amounting to about 81 per cent. in the 173
taken. Doncaster found a doubtful indication that the composition of the
population varies with the season, which is quite possible, but it is
most interesting to note that in my chief locality after the lapse of
ten years he found the proportions very much the same as I had done at
the same season, for where I had 19 per cent. of the female-like males
his collecting gave 16 per cent. In other respects also, his statistics
corresponded very closely with mine.[6]
The various forms of _Heliconius erato_ are well known to entomologists.
They are strikingly distinguished by the colours of the strong comb-like
marking on the hind wing, which may be red, yellow, green or blue. In
various parts of the distribution in South America sometimes two and
sometimes three of these distinct types co-exist.[7]
The distribution of the varieties of _Noctua castanea_ typifies a large
range of cases. The form which is reckoned the normal of the species
has red fore-wings. It is practically restricted to Great Britain and
Germany, according to Tutt. The other common form, _neglecta_, has grey
fore-wings, and in this pattern it ranges through West Central Europe
from North Italy to Germany. In the British Isles it extends up to
Orkney. In Britain this grey form is by far the commoner, occurring
wherever the species is found. The red form is much scarcer in England,
and does not occur at all in many localities where the grey form is
common. Mr. Woodforde, from whom this account is taken,[8] states that
in August, 1899, he saw considerably over a hundred of the grey in the
New Forest at sugar, but only two red ones. In Staffordshire however the
red is proportionately more numerous and he estimates them as 40 per
cent. of the population. Lastly a form has been taken in Staffordshire
as a rarity in which the red is replaced by yellow, and this has
hitherto been seen nowhere else. It is beyond our immediate purposes
to discuss the genetic relationships of such forms, but the details
of this case are interesting as making fairly clear the fact that the
distinctions between _castanea_ and _neglecta_ are due to combinations
of the presence of and absence of two pairs of factors, of which one
produces a red pigment in the ground colour of the forewing and the
other irrorates the same region with black scales. Mr. Woodforde states
that all intermediates exist, and that in Staffordshire the greys always
have a pinkish tinge. The yellow is doubtless another recessive to the
red.
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