RANDOM NOTES ON ZYGAENA EXDLANS AND ITS VARIETIES. 263 



Although I had recently had the pleasure of seeing so many speci- 

 mens, I thought it advisable for the purpose of this paper to write to 

 Mr. Home, who had obtained a number of specimens this year, to 

 substantiate the views I held or to contradict them. He writes : — " I 

 think all the female Z. exulnns have more or less whitish (or rather yellow- 

 ish) nervures to the fore-wings. I never, however, saw a male with any 

 trace of the same." This bears out my own observations on the Braemar 

 specimens. 



The Scotch form, or race, being practically identical then with part 

 of that found in the Grauson Valley (although without the range 

 of variation exhibited in the latter) but entirely different from 

 tlie specimens which I have from other localities excepting Cogne 

 and Lapland, it becomes necessary to compare the specimens obtained, 

 and to enquire as to the extent of minor variation exhibited by 

 this particular race. Some of the males from the Grauson Valley 

 and Braemar are so completely identical that they are, as before stated, 

 inseparable, lepidopterists picking out Swiss for Scotch, and vice versa. 

 The same dark ground colour and the same tint of red characterises 

 both in their s^jotting, although an occasional Val Grauson male 

 is, perhaps, slightly brighter than any Scotch specimens I have yet 

 seen, but the difference is really immaterial in so well-defined a local 

 race. Males with pale collars, however, do not appear to occur in 

 Scotland. In the latter country this appears to be exclusively a female 

 character. In the Val Grauson, on the contrary, the males often appear 

 to have it. But it is chieiiy among the females that the greatest range of 

 variation exists. The least well-marked of the Grauson Valley female 

 specimens present no difference from the Scotch, but others of them are 

 so strongly marked with Avhitish nervui'es, etc., that they form a very 

 decided range of variation beyond their Braemar relatives. Their red 

 spots, too, are often altogether brighter, and the ground colour paler. 

 These extreme forms of the female can as readily be separated from ordi- 

 nary Scotch specimens, as could those from the Lauzon Valley or 

 Lauteret. The heathery environment in Scotland is altogether different 

 from the high Alpine pastures or the rocky mountain sides of the Grauson 

 Valley, and the usually wet cloudy weather of the Scotch mountains 

 gives place to the clear air, bright sunshine, dry atmosphere, and 

 high day temperature of the Alps. Perhaps herein lies part of the 

 reason for this tendency to a brighter coloration. 



But these Cogne, Grauson (in part) and Braemar si^ecimens form a 

 very distinct race, and deserve a distinctive name, if they are not indeed 

 the type form This, from the definition of the ground colour and pale 

 markings mentioned in the type description is rather improbal^le, l)ut at 

 the same time, the study of Scandinavian authors makes it certain that 

 their form is identical with ours, and it is very clear that Dalman. as far 

 back as 1816, described the female Scandinavian specimens as <^. exalans, 

 and the male as Z. ranadis. 



It will now lie interesting to encpiire into what Dalman sa3^s. In 

 a paper entitled " Forsok till Systematisk Ui)stallning af Sveriges 

 Fjiirillar," by J. W. Dalman (Fortsiittning), publislied in the Koiujl. 

 Vetcnshaps Academieni^ Handlinijar, 1816, pp. 222-223, Dalman 

 writes : — " Zijgaena exulnns. Alls anticis fusco-virescentibus, subdiaphanis, 

 sul)tus concoloribus, maculis quinque rubris infequalibus (venis albidis) ; 

 posticis rubris margine f usco-virescenti ; antennis vix clavatis ; pedibus 

 luteis. Och., ii., p. 40, No. 9 ,; Hb., fig. 12 and 101. Specimen nieum e 



