( 546 ) 



type. The tliree forms intergrade com])lctel}-. The females from Central America 

 are on the whole the same as North American ones. The development in Central 

 America evidently tends towards a black type; the insect is still nnstable, the 

 causes which are producing the black type not taking effect in all individnals. 

 It is one of the numerous cases where an insect is on the point of splitting up 

 into some well-marked geographical varieties. We emphasize nomenclatorially the 

 occnrrence of the kind of variability mentioned by recording the three types of 

 males nnder three names. 



a!. c?-f. asterius Cram., I.e. Both wings with a yellow discal band of spots 



which enters the cell on hindwing. This is the most widely distributed form 

 occurring from South Canada to South Me.xico. The black dot in the anal ocellus 

 is rarely absent. Ehrmann, I.e., records as semialba 2 Si from Pennsylvania 

 in which the spots of the forewing are pure white, while the markings of the 

 hindwing are deep golden yellow. ' 



6'. <S-i. cia-i-i/aseia Skinu., I.e. Shorter winged and shorter tailed than the 



preceding ; discal band broad, but not entering the cell of the hindwing, or there 

 being only a small spot in the cell. This is a form occurring in New Mexico, 

 Vera Cruz and Guatemala, being in the first and last mentioned countries the 

 prevailing if not the only form of the male. Some North American males 

 come very close to it, and there are also West Mexican specimens which arc 

 scarcely distinguishable. Standinger's figure of P. pob/xenes, I.e., represents 

 the present form. 



c'. cJ-f. ampliata Men(5tr., I.e.; asterioides Reak., I.e. Discal spots of 



fore- and hindwing, above, strongly reduced, partly obsolete, often all absent from 

 forewing. This black form is more common in Guerrero than the eJ-f a.iteriu^, 

 intermediate specimens being about as plentiful as S-l ampliata. Reakirt's 

 description of asterioides applies to specimens with small spots on the forewing. 

 The type sj)ecimeu of P. asterioides preserved in the American Museum is said by 

 Skinner to be "simply an inconstant and accidental variation, and a collector could 

 take a dozen equally as aberrant wherever the species is common." We have not 

 seen a single specimen from North America which agrees with Reakirt's description. 

 The only instance of the occurrence of a black male similar to the female within 

 the United States we know of is recorded by Edwards, Canad. Ent. xxiv. p. 49 

 (1892), who bred a male of that form from a Colorado chrysalis. 



The female does not vary so much as the male ; the majority of specimens have 

 small yellow discal spots on the upperside, in many individuals these spots are 

 nearly all missing, while in others again the spots are large. The females received 

 from Rincon with the specimens of cJ-f. curvifascia are described by Skinner as 

 being like the males, but having the spots on the forewing lighter in colour. 

 We have a female from the same place (received from Mr. G. Franck, of Brooklyn) in 

 which the discal spots of the forewing are obsolete except the upper two or three, 

 the middle spots of the hindwing being also much smaller than in the males 

 from that place. A bred female from Iowa, July 1st, LSOT, killed too soon after 

 emergence from the chrysalis, the wings being somewhat crinkly, agrees with ordinary 

 specimens of S-t asterius, but the spots are paler and are irregularly stained with 

 black, the band having the appearance of being smeared over with black here and 

 there. A specimen in which the submargiual spots of the hindwing are reduced and 

 of a bluish colour (ab. alunata) has been named by Skinner & Aaron, I.e. A rare 

 ttberration common to both sexes is ab. cahcrleyi Grote, I.e., which is well known 



