The Genus Pararge. 



By Hy. J. Turner, F.E.S.— /.Wr/ October 26t/,, 1916. 



In Britain we have been accustomed to allocate the two species 

 ae(jeria and iiu'tiera'- to the genus Paranie, and those of us who are 

 interested in the continental Lepidoptera also include maera, hiera, 

 achine and other less common species. 



A quite casual glance at our two British species will suffice to 

 suggest to us that the differences are weight)- enough to place them 

 in separate genera or at least in sub-genera. 



This was the opinion of the great Hiibner a century ago when he 

 was preparing his List, the " Verzeiehniss," 1816-1827. 



Position of the Pararge species previous to the " Verz.'' of 

 HiiBNER, 1818. 



Linn^us in 1758, " Sys. Nat.," ed. x, p. 472, etc., included ae(/eria 

 in his section " gemmati" of the division "Nymphales" of Papilio. 

 In 1767, I.e., ed. xii., mer/era was added to this section which was 

 distinguished from the " Heliconii " and " Danai " by the edges of 

 their wings which are indented or scalloped in the " Nymphales," 

 and adorned with eyes which are found on all the wings m some 

 species and in others only on the hindwings, in the " Nymphales 

 gemmati." Thus we get a collection including such diverse species 

 as io, aeiieria, and iris. 



In 1767, Moses Harris issued an "Essay," to precede a supple- 

 ment to his " Aurelian," 1766, in which appears a systeuiatic 

 arrangement of the British butterflies based on the wing-veins. All 

 the species we now recognise as Satyrids were included in the genus 

 An/IIS. This name as a genus name has been, and may well be, 

 discarded, for it has been used in a most irregular way for various 

 groups at different times, even being employed to contain sections 

 of the Li/raeiiiila,'. [See Scudder, " Hist. Sketch," p. 118 (1875).] 



In 1776 (1775) t , Schifiermuller brought out his wonderful "Verz.," 

 known as the "Vienna List," (orW.V.), in which he ably collated all 

 that was known of the larval stages of the Lepidoptera, into a 

 marvellously correct (as we now consider) natural arrangement for 

 the time. In the section F,, p. 165, " Larvit subfurcativ " of the 

 " Day-lepidoptera," he placed all the then known European Satyrids, 



* This is the original spelling of Linnseus. 



f Mr. Durrant tells me that early copies have 1775 on the title page. 



