All these butterflies were very uniform in size, being about that of
the ordinary _Telamonides_. The specimens of _Telamonides_ especially
were “strongly marked, the crimson band in a large proportion of them
being as conspicuous as is usual in _Walshii_, and the blue lunules
near the tail were remarkably large and bright coloured. Of the
_Marcellus_, in addition to the somewhat reduced size, the tails were
almost invariably shorter than usual and narrower, and instead of the
characteristic single crimson spot, nearly all had two spots, often
large. In all these particulars they approach _Telamonides_.”
Adding to the _Telamonides_ which emerged after August 20th most of
those specimens which were found dead in the box at that date, the
total number of this form is thus brought up to nearly 50. Of the 122
pupæ with which Mr. Edwards started, 28 remained in a state fit for
hibernation, several having died without emerging. Previous experiments
had shown that 28 out of 122 pupæ is not an unreasonable number to
hibernate, so that the author concludes that the butterflies which
emerged the same season would have done so naturally, and the effect
of the artificial cold was not “to precipitate the emerging of any
which would have slept” till the following spring. Now under ordinary
circumstances all the butterflies which emerged the same season would
have been of the _Marcellus_ form, so that the cold changed a large
part of these into the form _Telamonides_, some (probably from those
pupæ which experienced the lowest temperature) being completely
changed, and others (from those pupæ which were only imperfectly
subjected to the cold) being intermediate, _i.e._, only partly changed.
It appears also that several pupæ experienced sufficient cold to retard
their emergence and stunt their growth, but not enough to change their
form, these being the 13 recorded specimens of _Marcellus_. Had the
degree of cold been equal and constant, the reversion would probably
have been more complete. The application of cold produced great
confusion in the duration of the pupal period, the emergence, instead
of taking place fourteen days after the withdrawal of the cold, as
might have been expected from Dr. Weismann’s corresponding experiment
with _Pieris Napi_ (Appendix I. Exps. 13 and 14), having been extended
over more than two months.
From the results of this experiment it must be concluded that
_Telamonides_ is the primary form of the species.
ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS WITH PAPILIO AJAX.
[_Communicated by_ Mr. W. H. EDWARDS, _November 18th, 1879_.]
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