KANDOM NOTES ON ZYGAENA EXULANS AND ITS VAHtETlES. 2H5 



We have now to consider the type, and to see what Sigmund von 

 Hohenwarth says in the Botanische Reisen nncli einigen Oberkdrntnerischcn 

 benachharten Alpen of Joseph Keiner. In the Preface, p. iii., we read : — 

 '" In the Appendix, Herr von Hohenwarth furnishes descriptions and accu- 

 rate figures of some hitherto luiknown, and other still very rare insects." 

 The insect is figured PI. vi., tig. 2, and on p. 2*i5 we read: — " Sphinx 

 exulans (Der verwiesener Demmerungsvogel). Sphinx. Alis superioribus 

 hyalino-virescentibus, albido nervosis, maculis quinque rubris utrinque 

 conspicuis ; inferioribus, prseter marginem apicis hyalino-virescentem, 

 rubris immaculatis." Then follows a long German description : — " This 

 moth has the size of <S'. statices or *§. filipendulae. Head, thorax, abdo- 

 men, and the whole body are above and below dark black, covered 

 thickly with similarly coloured scales. The head small, almost globular, 

 somewhat narrower and stumpily pointed below, and bent downwards. 

 The two palpi are curved upwards, round, black-haired ; the tongue 

 lying between them wound spirall}^ and glittering black-brown in 

 colour. The eyes beneath the antennae raised, naked and black. Tlie 

 antenna? moderately long, black, not transparent, thread-like, roundish, 

 tliickish towards the end, awl-shaped at the point, in front marked Avith 

 many ring-shaped incisions. The thorax cushion-shaped, with a whitish 

 hair}' band, interrupted in the middle. The abdomen longish, almost 

 uniformly thick, stumpy. The six feet whitish or light yellowish. The 

 four wings longer than the abdomen. U'ore-wings somewhat oval, of a 

 watery-greenish colour, almost semi-transparent, with four raised whitish 

 ribs, running longitTidinally from the base to beyond the middle of the 

 wing, and live red spots apparent both on the upper and under sides." 

 Then comes a description of the shape, size and position of the live spots, 

 which it is not worth while to translate here. He then adds : — " The 

 hind-wings have a watery-greenish coloured margin, with a white outer 

 margin, the remainder of the wings being entirely red, unspotted, 

 almost semi-transiiarent. This moth lives on the extreme Alpine sum- 

 mits of the Eis-geliirge at Glockner, on the so-called Pasterze, and lives 

 probably on the " Eis-" or " iihrengetragenden Beifuss " (Arfcinisia ijla- 

 cialis'f) which are almost the only plants of this perpetual winter land." 



It appears very evident from the "hyalino-virescentibus," of the 

 diagnosis, that the " water-green " specimens of the Alpine heights were 

 characteristically inclined to be diaphanous, whilst "albido nervosis" 

 shows that the description was probably, but not certainly, made from fe- 

 male specimens. This latter fact, however, makes it clear that the 

 type is not the insect usually sent out by the Continental dealers as 

 such, and which we usually receive from Switzerland, but is another 

 local race, in which the females are brightly tinted and have distinct 

 white nervures, agreeing in fact only with the extreme females Avhich I 

 have already mentioned as occurring in the Grauson Valley, with and 

 as an extreme female (and more rarely male) form of var. van<idii^. 



The unsatisfactory nature of description apart from specimens was 

 partly obviated by the satisfactory discovery of specimens of Zyijaena 

 exulans from Gr. Glockner in the British Museum collection, and as 

 the original description was made from specimens from this locality, we 

 get some idea of the form. Hardly any brighter than the Scotch form, 

 the males show, so far as may be judged from half-a-dozen s})ecimens, 

 scarcely any difference from that, but the female is identical with my 

 best " lined " Grauson specimens. I have no doubt therefore that the 

 Grauson specimens exhibit in their l)rightest phase an absolute identity 



