The recent development of melanism in the larvæ of certain species of Lepidoptera, with an account of its inheritance in Selenia bilunaria esp

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Abstract
One of the most remarkable evolutionary processes, the more striking since it has occured before our eyes, has been the rise and spread of melanism and melanochroism amongst the Lepidopetera. Commencing about 1850 in the Manchester area in England with the Geometrid moth Amphidasys betularia L., which yielded the black form carbonaria Jord. ( doubledayaria Mill.), this development has proceeded so rapidly, and become so widespread, that now there is scarcely a country in Northern and Central Europe which does not produce its quota of melanic insects. Moreover, the same state of affairs exists in the North-Eastern United States, although there the number of species affected, up to the present, is not so great as in Europe. Another important feature about these changes lies in the circumstance that, almost uniformly, in Europe and in the United States, the first species to exhibit melanism in any given area have been Amphidasys betularia and Tephrosia crepuscularia . From the beginning, the Geometridæ, more especially the subfamily Boarmiinæ, have provided not only the bulk of the melanic varieties, but also the greatest numbers of individuals. In many areas, as for example in the case of A. betularia and Y psipetes trifasciata , only black examples occur. Nevertheless, other groups include species which have gone black; for instance, the Noctuidæ present black forms of Aplecta nebulosa Hufn., the Cymatophoridæ of Cymatophora or F., the Arctiidæ of Spilosoma lubricipeda L., the Gelechiidæ of Chimabacche fagella F., and so on.

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