NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAK XSI. 1914. 30§ 



broad band of almost coalescent blotches. The discocelliilar black spot varies also 

 very mnch in size aad shape, being sometimes small, irregular, and more or 

 less wedge-shaped, while in others it is large and quadrate = ab. quadra. 

 In some ? ? the hindwings are bnffish j-ellow = ab. postochracea ab. nov. 

 Again in both sexes there is a great difference individually in the number 

 and size of the black streaks along the costal region of the forewings. 

 Below the principal variation lies in the markings at the apex of forewing 

 and the whole hindwing and in the discocellular spot. The latter is sometimes, 

 as above, entirely black, sometimes it has a small central white dot, and 

 sometimes this white central spot is so large that the black is reduced to a narrow 

 ring. In the apex of the forewing sometimes the green markings are extended 

 into regular bands and bars, in other specimens the green consists of irregular 

 streaks and patches, while in a few specimens the white has either almost driven 

 out the green markings or is replaced b}' yellow jiatches. But the greatest 

 variation is found in the white marks in the green of the hindwing ; in some 

 sjjecimens the entire hindwing is green with a few white irregular spots along the 

 margins, even less than in the ab. mauret nica Rober = pecki Oberth. ; in others 

 the whole of the green is regularly spotted with white patches, in some specimens 

 having a mother-of-pearl gloss, in others being dead white, as in tagis. Besides 

 these there are all kinds of variations in the shape and size of the white markings 

 till we find the opposite aberration, in which the whole hindwing is white with a 

 network of green. 



5. Euchloe tagis pecM (Stdgr.) 



AiUbocharis pechi Staudinger, E/it. Nachr. vol. 11, p. 10 (1885) (Lambessa). 



This insect, which was up to 1910 one of the rarest Palaearctic species, was 

 turned up at Guelt-es-Stel in 1911 by us, while stopping for lunch on April 28, on 

 our way north from Ghardaia. The first two specimens were taken by Dr. Nissen, 

 the Danish Consul-General, and on that and the following day we took seventeen in 

 all. In 1912 we spent ten days at Guelt-es-Stel, and although we got only three 

 pecMi the rest of the captures were so promising that I determined to work the 

 region thoroughly. This species only occurs in March and April, and in addition 

 to our own captures in April 1911-1912, there is a large series taken by Victor 

 Faroult in 1913-1914. Faroult also succeeded in rearing some ten or fifteen from 

 the egg. The larvae and pupae are not different from those of typical E. tagis. 

 All writers with the exception of Mr. Verity have treated this form as a distinct 

 species, and Rober in Seitz even places it in a separate genus from tagis. 

 This has led to innumerable errors, for local and aberrational forms of ausonia 

 (= belia Cram, nee Linn.) have been described as the local N. African races 

 of tagis. Mr. Verity was the first to point ont that pec/ii was in reality the 

 true representative form of tagis in N. Africa, and I can quite confirm his view, 

 for both in the British Museum and in my own collection there are Portuguese and 

 Spanish specimens of tagis differing very little from true pcc/ii. 



There is very little variation in this form ; on the upper side the grey band in 

 the dark apex of the forewing differs in size somewhat, while on the underside the 

 median spot in the hindwing varies slightly. This insect is confined to the low 

 hills on the western side of valley, extending from about the line of the Bordj to 

 three kilometres south of it, where the hills cease. Victor Faroult obtained this 



