18G5.] 



195 



Here again, therefore, there are too niany intermediate grades to make 

 the character worth anything. As to the third distinctive character, 

 making the length of the wing 100 in each of the above, the propor- 

 tional distance of the first wing-baud from the second wing-band on the 

 hind border of the wing, from centre to centre, is in (Z, e and <7 5, in c 

 7, in / and h 9, in / 10, in h 15, and in a 16. In other words this 

 character is proportionally three times as strong in some specimens as 

 in others, with intermediate grades from one to another. In persptcua 

 Gr. Rob. this proportional distance is equal to nothing, the first wing- 

 band being confluent behind with the second. Yet, although this seems 

 the most remarkable of the abnormal characters concentrated in per- 

 spicua, it is not enumerated by Grote & llobinson among the distinctive 

 characters of that so-called species. It may be added here, that Walker 

 gives it as a character of ministra, but not of contracta, that "the space 

 between the first and second wing-band is a little darker than the wing 

 elsewhere," whereas Fitch calls this form variety e of ministra, and in 

 fact this character is absent in a, h and h, very faint in c and e, mode- 

 rate in (/ and g, and obvious in i and /; and is said likewise to occur 

 in conspicua Gr. Rob. Here again, therefore, it is impossible to draw 

 a definite line anywhere. Moreover Walker gives it as a sexual cha- 

 racter of the % ministra that it has one discal brown spot, and of the 

 9 that it has two discal brown spots in the front wing. Whereas it is 

 proved by the specimens now before me, that the presence or absence 

 of one or both discal spots is not a sexual character at all. Evidently 

 this author has described, not the species, but the individual, and must 

 have worked on a very limited number of specimens. 



According to Messrs. Grote & Robinson D. conspicua " may be 

 quickly distinguished from the hitherto described species of the genus, 

 1st by its more yellow color, 2nd by the narrow anterior wings, 3rd by 

 the transverse lines not bordered with paler shades, 4th by the pro- 

 duced apices [of the front wings], 5//t by the obsolete irrorations [of 

 the front wings], Qth by the wider terminal space and the more crowded 

 transverse lines." {Proc. &c. IV. p. 490.) To take up these charac- 

 ters in order, \st in a colored impression of Mr. Grote's figure of per- 

 spicna, obligingly furnished to me by that gentleman himself, the color 

 of the front wing is only a shade or two yellower than in c and g, and 

 Fitch correctly states that in ministra "the fore wings vary from pale 

 buft" yellow to russet and auburn brown." (i\^. Y. Rep. I. p. 1^39.) 

 2.nd. Taking Mr. Grote's figure oi' perspicua as correct, and making the 

 extreme breadth of its front wing 100, its proportional length is only 



