NOVITATES ZOOLOC.ICAE XXIV. 1917. 99 



genitalia of a large series of examples should hereafter show it to be worthy of 

 specific rank. We found it much rarer at Khcnchela than aetheriae algirica, and 

 in the west of Algeria it seems to become still rarer. We have at Tring 61 

 specimens. 



2 Masser Mines, May 1914, Faroult. 



1 Titen Yaya, May 1915, Rotron. 



1 Bou Cedraia, May 1913, Faroult. 



1 Berrouaghia, April ! ! ! 1914, Faroult. 

 17 Khenchela, May— June 1911-1912, W. E., K. J., and Faroult. 

 39 Batna, Nelva. 



The specimen from Faroult from Berrouaghia may be an early freak, but 

 I expect it was a Khenchela one dragged about and finally put in by mistake. 



The British Museum possesses 12 specimens : 6 Lambessa, May 1882, 

 H. J. Elwes ; 4 Lambessa, June 1885, L. Bleuse ex Elwes coll. ; 2 Algeria, Leech 

 coll. 



There seems to be little or no variation in this insect. 



41a. Melitaea phoebe leechi subspec. nov. 



Differs from phoebe punica in being very much larger, deep rufous not 

 fulvous yellow or rufous yellow as in p. punica, and the black markings are 

 narrower and thinner. They are as large almost as Chinese examples or the 

 largest European forms. 



Habitat. Mogador. 14 specimens collected by J. H. Leech in the British 

 Museum ex Leech coll., Salvin Godman coll., and Elwes coll. 



These are all the specimens recorded so far as I know. 



[Melitaea didyma Ochs. 



This is the most variable butterfly almost that exists, and is certainly the 

 most widely spread Melitaea, extending as it does from Portugal, Spain, and 

 France to the Pacific, and from the Moroccan coast to Abyssinia, whUe from 

 north to south it reaches in the west from Germany to the Central Sahara, 

 and in the east from North-east Siberia to South China. It is not only variable 

 individually, but splits up into an unusually large number of local races, and 

 it is often difficult to define what is individual and what is local variation. 



It is in insects such as this that, once more, it is apparent that for adequate 

 study of species and subspecies of living creatures it is almost impossible to 

 have too large a series of specimens, not onlj' in regard to localities, but also 

 from each individual locality. 



In 1876, when describing for the first time didyma deserticola as an aberration, 

 Mr. Oberthiir cites didyma didyma as occurring in PhOippevUIe, Oran, Collo, 

 etc., in examples similar to Pyrenean examples, whUe from Ain Khala he had a 

 very distinct 9 all fiery red. In 1909 Mr. Charles Oberthiir designated tht- 

 Spanish and Algerian didyma as forma mauretanica, stating that Staudinger's 

 names occidentalis and meridionalis had been applied each to such a conglomera- 

 tion of local races that they could not stand, and a new nomenclature was required, 

 in order that a name could be applied to each well-characterised ASIATIC 

 SACE. 



