Mr. Edwards thus explains the case under consideration:--“When _Phaon_,
_Vesta_, and _Tharos_ were as yet only varieties of one species, the
sole coloration was that now common to the three. As they gradually
became permanent, or in other words, as these varieties became species,
_Tharos_ was giving rise to several sub-varieties, some of them in time
to become distinct and well marked, while the other two, _Phaon_ and
_Vesta_, remained constant. As the climate moderated and the summer
became longer, each species came to have a summer generation; and in
these the resemblance of blood-relationship is still manifest. As the
winter generations of each species had been much alike, so the summer
generations which sprung from them were much alike. And if we consider
the metropolis of the species _Tharos_, or perhaps of its parent
species, at the time when it had but one annual generation, to have
been somewhere between 37° and 40° on the Atlantic slope, and within
which limits all the varieties and sub-varieties of both winter and
summer forms of _Tharos_ are now found in amazing luxuriance, we can
see how it is possible, as the glacial cold receded, that only part of
the varieties of the winter form might spread to the northward, and but
one of them at last reach the sub-boreal regions and hold possession to
this day as the sole representative of the species. And at a very early
period the primary form, together with _Phaon_ and _Vesta_, had made
its way southward, where all three are found now.”
EXPERIMENTS WITH GRAPTA INTERROGATIONIS.[64]
[_Communicated by_ Mr. W. H. EDWARDS, _November 15th, 1879_.]
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