If it be asked why in the corresponding experiments with _Pieris
Napi_ complete reversion always occurred without exception, it may
be supposed that in this species the summer form has not been so
long in existence, and that it would thus be more easily abandoned;
or, that the difference between the two generations has not become
so distinct, which further signifies that here again the summer form
is of later origin. It might also be finally answered, that the
tendency to reversion in different species may vary just as much as
in different individuals of the same species. But, in any case, the
fact is established that all individuals are impelled by cold to
complete reversion, and that in these experiments it does not depend so
particularly upon the moment of development when cold is applied, but
that differences of individual constitution are much more the cause why
cold brings some pupæ to complete, and others to partial, reversion,
while yet others are quite uninfluenced. In reference to this, the
American _Papilio Ajax_ is particularly interesting.
This butterfly, which is somewhat similar to the European _P.
Podalirius_, appears, wherever it occurs, in three varieties,
designated as var. _Telamonides_, var. _Walshii_, and var. _Marcellus_.
The distinguished American entomologist, W. H. Edwards, has proved
by breeding experiments, that all three forms belong to the same
cycle of development, and in such a manner that the first two appear
only in spring, and always come only from hibernating pupæ, while
the last form, var. _Marcellus_, appears only in summer, and then
in three successive generations. A seasonal dimorphism thus appears
which is combined with ordinary dimorphism, winter and summer forms
alternating with each other; but the first appears itself in two forms
or varieties, vars. _Telamonides_ and _Walshii_. If for the present we
disregard this complication, and consider these two winter forms as
one, we should thus have four generations, of which the first possesses
the winter form, and the three succeeding ones have, on the other hand,
the summer form, var. _Marcellus_.
The peculiarity of this species consists in the fact that in all
three summer generations only a portion of the pupæ emerge after a
short period (fourteen days), whilst another and much smaller portion
remains in the pupal state during the whole summer and succeeding
winter, first emerging in the following spring, and then always in the
winter form. Thus, Edwards states that out of fifty chrysalides of the
second generation, which had pupated at the end of June, forty-five
_Marcellus_ butterflies appeared after fourteen days, whilst five pupæ
emerged in April of the following year, and then as _Telamonides_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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