220 THE entomologist's record. 



markings as weak as in the first-named figure, the majority have 

 them well expressed, and agree with fig. Jj2, excepting that their 

 colour is not quite so bright ; two or three, indeed, are only doubt- 

 fully referable to ab. yiifesn^ns, the colour being red-brown rather than 

 red. Mr. Tutt's analysis {Brit. Xort., ii., p. 96), which has helped me 

 so much in the elucidation of the various forms, nevertheless leaves 

 me in considerable doubt about his ab. nifa : he cites Clark's figures 

 B2 and B3 to it, but they do not both represent the same form {t<'ste, 

 Mr. Clark's text, p. 1^5), and, to add to the confusion, he (?klr. Tutt) 

 asserts that " the posterior wings of the Scotch specimens are often 

 much darker than those found in England, although the form is 

 obtained throughout Britain." I myself have never even seen a 

 specimen so red as Clark's fig. Bl {rufescens, Tutt) from the south, to 

 say nothing of fig. B3 ; yet even this latter has not (according to the 

 figure) any true melanic tendency, either on fore- or hind-wings, and if 

 the name nifa is to be applied to specimens which have the melanic 

 tendency, I think it ought to be dissociated from the figures which its 

 author has cited to it. If the dift'erentiation between the " typical" and 

 the " c/n'^/.s// " classes is generally anything like so clear as in my 

 material, I certainly could not consent to admit a varietal name which 

 covered some specimens of each class. I am inclined to restrict ab. 

 riifa to such examples as fig. B3, described by Mr. Clark as " rich, 

 almost crimson " in colour, Ac, and to add, " hindwings not infus- 

 cated " ; it will then cover the most extreme development of the 

 purely red coloration, not represented at all in the two broods which 

 are the subject of this article, although I have one specimen from 

 Aberdeen which can be referred to it. 



The melanic {curtisii) examples of our brood B range from about 

 the type of i\Ir. Clark's CI (two or three only) through examples 

 which are more mottled with black (about ten, comparable with 

 Clark's C2 or a trifie darker) to true ab. niiire^rens (about five), two or 

 three of them (bred by Mr. Kaye) verging on ab. nit/ra in the depth of 

 the black of the forewings and the increasing infuscation of hindwings. 

 The remaining four or five connect the redder with the blacker, not 

 so much by blotching in certain parts with black as by an .uniform 

 commingling of the colours throughout — the form noted above as so 

 prevalent (86 or H7 specimens) in brood A, and chiefly in my section 

 of it. 



In comparing the two broods, one notices two or three racial 

 features worthy of mention. In brood A the orbicular stigma is 

 (fenerally round or roundish, and not very obliquely placed ; in brood 

 B it is (jenrrallij narrower, decidedly obliquely placed, very rarely 

 round, and fairly straight. Again, in brood A, there is an entire 

 absence of the uniformly light red aberration (ab. ritfe^cens, Tutt), 

 whilst in brood B over one-third — about 86 per cent. — are referable 

 to this form. ]>oth broods show an absence of some of the well- 

 known Scottish forms, such as the extreme ab. ni'tfra, Tutt, the banded 

 ab. vinjata, Tutt, kc. 



Summarised, the above analysis works out as follows : — 



Brood A : ab. pallida, Tutt, &c.", about 43 ; ab. (jri.tea, Tutt, &c., 



* I regret that I am quite unable to subdivide these into the adsequa, pallida, 

 oehrea, nifo-oclired, and lurexcenn of Tutt, for although I consider that he has 

 given an excellent scheme, yet, as Mr. Adkin says (luc cit., p. 157) : " This species 



