(445 ) 



M. Pseudapiconoma vitreata sp. nov. 



This species is quite distinct from J'tiicstni/a Joril. 



?. Legs, lie.ul, antennae, and thorax very dark nisset-lirowu ; abdomen very 

 dark riisset-lirown, two dorsal and one lateral line of lilack spots on iiih.Tsc'i^racnfal 



sjiaces. Fortwing excised at ternieii, basal and npiciil lonrtlis dark russet-brown, 



rest of wing very clear hyaline, a very large discocellular ]iatcli, a smaller one 



between veins 7 and 8, and costa dark riisset-brown. Hindwing hyaline with 



broad deep russet-brown margin, cell semihyaliue russet-grey. 



Length of forewing : 33 mm. 



IJaL ? 



1 ?. 



NOTES ON SEA ELEPHANTS {MIBOITNGA). 



By the Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Pn.D. 



(Plates VIIL and IX.) 



rr^lIE Sea Elephants or Elephant Seals {Mirounga) have always interested me, 

 J- both from their curious distribution as well as on account of their rapidly 

 approaching extermination. 



The immediate incentive for publishing the accom[ianying jilates was the 

 acquisition of the magnificent specimen of the Southern form (Mironiicja patugonifa 

 Gray) from the Falkland Islands figured ou Plate IX. 



\\\ the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 19U9, pp. 1)01 — 6u(3, Mr. R. 

 Lydi'kker has divided the Sea Ele[)hants (MiroKi/ga) into two species, one of which 

 he divides into three distinct and oue doubti'ul subspecies. In a footnote on page 0' Hi 

 he draws attention to certain facts furnished him by myself which alter somewhat 

 his conclusions. In the same journal for 1910, pp. 580 — .VSS, Professor Einar 

 Liinnberg, while maintaining his belief in the subspecific distinction amoug the Sea 

 Elephants, proves by the comparison of a number of South Georgia Sea Elephant 

 skulls that the cranial characters on which Mr. Lydekker relies are too variable to 

 have any diagnostic value. This being the case I shall endeavour to filnd some 

 constant characters and give a key to species and sulispecies in a future article. 



When Mr. Harris reported the existence of the small herd of the Northern Sea 

 Elephant on Guadaloupe Island, and I requested him to procure sijecimens, he made 

 the, to me, startling announienicnt that he must reach the island before the 

 middle of May or the Sea Elephants would have migrated to the south. I looked 

 up the matter, and I found that, although a few stray inilividuals might formerly 

 have leil a pelagic life north of the Equator, the bulk of the Northern Sea Elephants 

 migrated in the hot weather to the Chilian coast and the islands near (Juan 

 Fernandeic, Masafuera, etc.). As Linnaeus based his I'lioca leo/iiiiK on Lonl 

 Anson's si)ecimen brought in 1744 i'rom the island of Juan Fernandez, the name 

 must be retained for the Northern Sea Elephant, and, in spite of Mr. Lydekker's 

 objection that the name is based on an immiture spe-iraen and therefore the 

 diagnosis is faulty and insufficient, Gray's name of jxitagonica must stand for the 

 Southern Sea Elephant. 



Unlike Mr. Lydekker, I consider the No'thern Sea Elephant also only 



