204 [January 



Under side of primaries yellowish grey; a marginal row of nearly 

 obsolete spots, the lunules above which are more distinct; a curved 

 median row of small, rounded, black spots, six or seven in number, the 

 first, on the costa, sometimes wanting, the seventh, on inner margin, 

 double; all edged with white; on the arc a reniform black spot, and a 

 small double spot in the cell one-third the distance from the reniform 

 to the base. 



Secondaries darker, with a blue tinge at base ; a marginal row of spots 

 as on the primaries; a submarginal of large, whitish spots, as in Pheres, 

 some of which have a few black scales in the centre ; these spots are 

 connected so as to form a band ; on the outer half of the wing are three 

 whitish spots, the two on costa with black centres ; another such spot 

 on the costa near base, and one on abdominal margin. 



Body below white ; palpi white tipped with black ; antennae black 

 annulated with white; club black above, ferruginous below. 



Female. Same size, black, lightly sprinkled with blue at the base. 



From two males, one female, taken at Pikes Peak by Mr. Ridings. 



Notes upon the variation of sexes in ARGYNNIS DIANA. 



BY H. W. BATES, 



Of London, England. 

 (Communicated to Wm. EC. Edwards, Esq., in a letter dated Oct. 20, 1864) 



Nothing, for a long time, in the Entomological way, has so much 

 interested me as your account of the capture of the female of Argynnis 

 Diana and the inspection of the specimen which you sent enclosed in 

 your letter. If such fine discoveries can still be made in North Ame- 

 rica, it gives one a large idea of the field still open to the Entomologists 

 of the United States. The contrast between the two sexes is wonder- 

 fully great : a wide disparity between the sexes, however, is not abso- 

 lutely new in the genus Argynnis. It is seen in the Argynnis Sagana 

 of Northern China, whose male is of the ordinary fulvous color and re- 

 sembles A. Laodice of Europe, but whose female is greenish brown 

 with white macular belts and so peculiar in coloring that it has been 

 described not only as a distinct species but as belonging to a new genus. 

 by Nordmau, who called it Damora Paulina. Incipient sexual dispa- 

 rity in colors is seen also in Argynnis Papliia of Europe, the females 

 of which are sometimes very different from the males. This sexual 

 variety, however, is local, and it has been figured as a distiuct species 

 under the name of Argynnis Valesiana by Esper. 



