53 



So far as we know this form occurs in Ireland, Hungary, Rumania, 

 Armenia, Cilicia, and the Caucasus, all districts, be it noted, on the 

 outskirts of the geographical range of the species, and Cockayne 

 suggests that the light male may be the original form, and that the 

 newer form with a dark male may have arisen somewhere in the 

 centre of the area in which the species occurs and spread towards 

 the outskirts (" Ent. Rec," xxxi., 104). 



Turati gives the name var. binat/hii to specimens which he 

 describes as of " a sandy colour, a bay, more or less clear, or non- 

 smoky." Of which he says, "although supposedly a hybrid, or 

 rather a mongrel of the nistica ^ with the mendira $ , is a product 

 of natural selection." (" Atti. Mus. Milano," xlii., p. 39, pi. iii., f. 

 3-6), but unfortunately he does not tell us the exact locality whence 

 he obtained his specimens. 



We have been accustomed to believe that nistica is the only form 

 occurring in Ireland, but this seems to be open to doubt, and indeed 

 Kane in his " Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Ireland," says, " We 

 find, therefore, the var. mstica, though occurring in the extreme 

 north and south of Ireland, is not the universal form." ("Entom.," 

 xxvi., p. 344.) From which we must presume that the dark, typical 

 male mendica occurs in the central districts, but this is a question 

 that needs clearing up : perhaps some of our Irish friends can 

 help us. 



Be that as it may, if we breed from a pairing between a white 

 Irish rustica male and a female of the same race, the male progeny 

 are not all of the white form, but vary considerably in colour, some 

 generally being darker and of quite a sandy-brownish tint = var. 

 bina;)hii, and occasionally a few may be more or less a mixture of 

 brown and white, but so far as I am aware the typical smoky-brown 

 male never results from rufitica parents. Is it possible that in such 

 cases tbe stock from which we breed may, in some former genera- 

 tion, have been contaminated by the dark, typical race ? 



Another form, closely allied to var. nistica, and running in 

 parallel light and dark gradations with it, has recently been named 

 var. venosa (" Entom.," Iv., p. 79). Its general tone of colour in 

 the male is grey as compared with the yellowish-brown tone of 

 nistica, and in both sexes the wing veins are often conspicuously 

 darker than the ground colour. It was taken in Co. Tyrone, and 

 has been bred to the second generation, its characteristics being 

 preserved throughout. 



Ernst and Engramelle (" Papillons de I'Europe," iv., p. 166, pi. 

 clix., fig. 205f.), figure a specimen that is distinctly lighter in colour 

 than the type, and of it say " fig. 205f. is a variety of tbe male 

 drawn from the cabinet of Mr. Gerning. The colour is a good deal 

 lighter than in the species, and in proportion more of a yellowish 

 grey, it has black spots on its four wings. The underside has the 

 same depth of colour as 205e. The female upper- and undersides 



