200 THK ENTOMOLOfiTST's RKCORD. 



(even in mucli poorer condition) exhibited. With this amount of 

 material, in the possession of wliich I suppose I was better off than 

 ninety-nine per cent, of British entomologists, who, for some unknown 

 reason, will not (whether on account of their moral character, or for 

 fear the specimens might bite them, I have never quite discovered) 

 have a Swiss specimen in their possession, I considered that I had 

 reached the ultiina Thule of the information, &c. to be obtained from 

 the study of the dried bodies of Zygaena exulans. However, to prove 

 that this was so, I tried one resource, Staudinger's Catalog. There it 

 said : — 



Zj/gaena exdans, Hochenwarth and Eeiner, Bot. 



Beisen, 1792, p. oo, T. vi., I*; Esp., 41, Sumnife Alpes; 



1-2 ; Hb. 12, 101 ; B., Mon. Z., 3, 3 ; Ic, 54, Pyrenees. 



4-5 ; Frr., 200, 2; 500, 1 ; Dup. ii., 5, oa.b. 



a. var. vanadis, Dalman, Zi/g. Saec, 223, 6, f Lap. ; Scand. 



(parcissime squamata, albo non mixta). Mont. 



* This should be Zygaena (Sphin,>-) exulans, Hohen- 

 warth. Reiner und Hohenwarth's B<it. Reisen, p. 265 ; 

 PL fi; fig. 2 (1792). 



t This should be Zygaena vanadis, Dalman, Kongl. 1 

 Vetensk-Ak. Handl., 1816, p. 223. 



Was I not happy ? " Sparsely scaled and not mixed with white," 

 was the diagnosis of var. vanadis ; by assumption or inference therefore 

 the type must be well scaled and mixed with ^\'llite. There I was. 

 My Swiss specimens were well-scaled and not mixed with white, whilst 

 my Scotch specimens were poorly scaled (probably rubbed, as they were 

 bald-headed), but two s])ecimens had traces of pale nervures and pale 

 thoracic patches, which I thought might be considered as being " mixed 

 with white." 



Now all this was delightfully clear, because everything appeai^ed to 

 be exactly as it ought not to be, and when at last, about two 3fears ago, 

 I saw some really good male Scotch specimens, which were almost or 

 quite as thickly scaled as, but far less brightly tinted than the Swiss 

 specimens which I possessed, and observed that the thoraces of the 

 female Scotch specimens were always mixed (sometimes strongly so) 

 with pale yellowish or whitish, i.e., the Scotch specimens presented a 

 clear and defined sexual dimorphism, of which the main characteristics 

 were that the females were more thinly clothed with scales, and possessed 

 pale nervures extending from the base to beyond the discal cell, as well 

 as a pale inner margin to the fore-wings, I began to feel doubtful 

 where I was in the matter. On the material I then had, leaving out 

 the ephemeral difference of scaling, I knew two forms only — a very 

 brightly coloured form, the females without white nervures, and a 

 darker (Scotch) form, showing fairly defined sexual dimorphism. 



I was in this clear and definite condition of mind when Dr. Chapman, 

 Avho had gone on ahead of me into Savoy, picked me up at Chambery 

 towards the end of July, 1894, and, although I had l)een travelling some 

 24 hours and was exceedingly hungry, insisted on my glancing through 

 some glass-topped boxes (which he had ready for my inspection in his 

 coat pocket) whilst I vainly tried to dispose of breakfast, and gave me 

 glowing accounts of what he had seen in the La Grave district, espe- 

 cially in the neighbourhood of Lauteret. 



