Retrospective Criticism, 

 \ r 124 



751 



more than five or six. It differs from M. Selene in being 

 rather smaller, and having the black spots and characters on 

 the upper surface of both pair of wings larger and stronger, 

 so that the whole assumes a darker appearance than that 

 insect. But the principal difference consists in the under side 

 of the posterior wings, which are of a brownish purple, inter- 

 spersed with darker markings of the same colour, and nume- 

 rous irregular semi-metallic spots ; a row of which borders 

 the pdsterior margin. I would invite the attention of ento- 

 mologists to this insect, which deserves minute investigation. 

 As Mr. Weaver has taken two examples of it in the same 

 place, in different and distant seasons, it may possibly prove 

 a distinct species ; but, for the present, I would refer it to 

 M. Selene, of which it is at least a very strong variety. 



Mg. 125. is a foreign insect, which Mr. Weaver received 

 in a collection from the Himalaya Mountains. It strongly 

 resembles Vanessa Atalanta; or, rather, is intermediate be- 

 tween that species and Cynthia cardui. I believe it to be the 

 same, or nearly so, with that to which I formerly alluded (see 

 p. 334-., note §), as in the cabinet of my friend, Mr. Ha- 

 worth : I speak doubtfully, as it is difficult to carry nice 

 distinctions in the mind's eye. Our present insect certainly ap- 

 proaches V. Atalanta much more closely than it does C. cardui. 

 From the former it differs in having the transverse band of 

 a less brilliant scarlet, and much more irregular and inter- 

 rupted, and in this respect resembling the corresponding band 

 in C. cardui ; the white spots, also, at the apex of the anterior 

 wings, are smaller than those of Atalanta. The posterior 

 wings are of a dark sooty brown (not black), with the scarlet 

 border narrower, and a double row of larger black spots, 

 besides those on the cilia. Beneath, the posterior wings are 

 paler than those of Atalanta ; and here again the insect 

 approaches C. cardui in the marbling towards the base, and 

 the ocelli (which, however, are more obscure) near the mar- 

 gin. The under side, indeed, of the posterior wings is exactly 

 intermediate between those of the two species with which I 

 have instituted a comparison. From both, however, this 



