112 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



has a short broad tail, but it is a Pyrameid in everything else, on the 

 upperside it is very close to P. atalanta, with the red changed to yellow 

 in both wings, but with two ocellated spots by the tail of the 

 secondaries, whilst the underside of the secondaries is in pattern a 

 transition between F. cardui and P. atnlanta. The other species of the 

 genus are not so close, but tend to show the line of development, if 

 indeed luppoinene may not be nearer the generic prototype. I am led 

 to pen these reflections not in any spirit of controversy, for we need 

 theorisers, and the paper in question betokens much thought, but when 

 we theorise the scientific mind should be most careful to make its 

 theories centre round the facts, and not turn the facts to centre round 

 its theories. 



Notes on Agrlades thetis (bellargus). 



By G. C. C. HODGSON, M.D. 



I have just been able to look through the recently- published account 

 by Mr. Tutt on Auriades thetis {A Nat. Hist, of Brit. Lep., x., pp. 

 331-333), and offer the following remarks on some of the points 

 raised, based on the British material in my own collection. 



^ AB. viRiDEscENs, TuTT. — All the fomis show, and the greenish ones 

 to a marked extent, the presence of scales of more than one tint. In 

 the greenish specimens, the green scales are of a pale emerald. A 

 viash of emerald-green water colour "scumbled" over the mixture of 

 ccerulean and ultramarine just reproduces the effect. The best 

 examples in my series come from Lewes (2), Keigate (1), Dover (1), 

 while many others not quite so marked come from Dover and 

 Folkestone, with a few from Surrey and Lewes. One from Wrotham 

 in a friend's collection about equals the best of mine. They occur 

 mostly in the first brood, but some are second brood examples. 



Doubtful pathological examples. — In wet seasons {e.(j., 1904 

 1st brood, 1907 1st brood, 1909 2nd brood, especially) I have netted 

 blue males showing patches or spots or lines of purple, quite distinct 

 from the purplish patches observed in bleached specimens. In one of 

 these the patches are quite symmetrically arranged on the right and 

 left wings. 



Local colour variation. — In one locality near Lewes, there is a 

 tendency for the S to become darkened to a blackish-blue violet or to a 

 blackish-greenish blue. These examples often show dusky or smoky 

 fringes in which the usual darker patches are obscured. There are 

 always obtainable on this ground, more commonly and regularly than 

 elsewhere observed, specimens of a deepish pure blue colour. All these 

 aberrations just mentioned are, in my mind, particularly associated 

 with August specimens. The conditions, whatever they may be, 

 which give such abundance of A. thetis in the August brood, seem to 

 afford a larger percentage. Occasionally (especially in August, 1906) 

 specimens occur of 5 s with dusky fringes, and always both J s and 

 2 s are to be found with heavily marked fringes. 



(J s with fringes approaching plain = ab. hyacinthus, Lewin. — 

 In the seven specimens of this form in my collection, twenty-two 

 stri^ fail to extend through the width of the fringe. In one example, 

 the failure is in the inner half of the fringe opposite four of the 

 nervures of the right upper wing, thus leaving four detached blotches 



