Orolina exhibits four distinct varieties, all occurring together, and these differ not only in colour but in form, one variety being described as having the fore wings much elongated in the male, while another is much larger and has "the hind wings in the male different in shape." Of Heliconius Numata Mr. Bates says: "This species is so variable that it is difficult to find two examples exactly alike," while "it varies in structure as well as in colours. The wings are sometimes broader, sometimes narrower; and their edges are simple in some examples and festooned in others." Of another species of the same genus, H. melpomene, ten distinct varieties are described all more or less connected by intermediate forms, and four of these varieties were obtained at one locality, Serpa on the north bank of the Amazon. Ceratina Ninonia is another of these very unstable species exhibiting many local varieties which are, however, incomplete and connected by intermediate forms; while the several species of the genus Lycorea all vary to such an extent as almost to link them together, so that Mr. Bates thinks they might all fairly be considered as varieties of one species only.
Turning to the Eastern Hemisphere we have in Papilio Severus a species which exhibits a large amount of simple variation, in the presence or absence of a pale patch on the upper wings, in the brown submarginal marks on the lower wings, in the form and extent of the yellow band, and in the size of the specimens. The most extreme forms, as well as the intermediate ones, are often found in one locality and in company with each other. A small butterfly (Terias hecabe) ranges over the whole of the Indian and Malayan regions to Australia, and everywhere exhibits great variations, many of which have been described as distinct species; but a gentleman in Australia bred two of these distinct forms (T. hecabe and T. Æsiope), with several intermediates, from one batch of caterpillars found feeding together on the same plant.[1] It is therefore very probable that a considerable number of supposed distinct species are only individual varieties.
Cases of variation similar to those now adduced among butterflies might be increased indefinitely, but it is as well to note that such important characters as the neuration of the
- ↑ Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London, 1875, p. vii.
