266 THE entomologist's record. 



with the Glockner specimens. The important fact to remember is that 

 the very bright specimens usually sent out as typical Swiss specimens do 

 not represent the type form. It is clear, since the type occurs in the 

 Grauson Valley with var. vanadis, that the latter is in that locality 

 simply an aberration, wliilst in Scotland it forms a true variety or local 

 race, and thus adds another to the similar examples mentioned in the 

 pamphlet Strai/ Notes on the Noduae. 



We have still the known Swiss valley specimens to consider. Those 

 I have came (as I have before stated) from Dr. Staudinger and Prof. 

 Blachier. They are altogether brighter green in the ground colour, and 

 the red spots, too, are brighter ; the wings appear to be actually broader 

 compared with their width, and all the specimens that I have, both 

 males and females, have traces of a pale collar ; the females, too, have 

 no distinct whitish nervures or pale inner margin. I only write of 

 what I have, but what I know of the species from the Alps of Piedmont 

 and Savoy, makes me diffident in drawing conclusions from so small a 

 series as a dozen specimens. Nothing is so utterly absurd in the study 

 of variation, as to attemj^t to build up generalisations about the local 

 forms of various districts, or even countries, on the knowledge obtained 

 from two or three or even half a dozen specimens. 



The princi})al forms known to me, therefore, are as follows: — 



1. — Well scaled, brightly coloured, with short, broad wings, some- 

 what clearly defined dark margin to hind wings. Females almost as 

 bright and well scaled as the males, with piale collar, but with no 

 whitish markings on thorax, nor whitish nervures. Specimens from 

 the Swiss Alps =i^ var. darn, n. var. 



2. — Well-scaled, dark-green ground colour, less brightly coloured, 

 males usually without pale collar, or mottling on thorax or pale nervures ; 

 females with pale collar and pale mottling to thoi-ax, and pale nervures 

 to fore-wings ; the dark margin to hind-wing variable, but broader 

 and sometimes merging indistinctly into the red ; females more thinly 

 scaled than males = specimens from neighbourhood of Cogne (above 

 Gimilian) ; Braemar; some specimens captured Avitli ty})e in Grauson 

 Valley. This variety (in Scotland), or aberration (Grauson Valley), 

 was named snbodiracea by Dr. Buchanan White. It had, however, been 

 descril)ed in 1816, as var. randdis, ])y Dalman. In fine condition, the 

 males particularly are neither so thinly scaled nor devoid of red colour, as 

 has geuerall}' been supposed by British collectors, who, usually possessed 

 only poor specimens ; the scaling of the males being well-developed, and 

 the coloring often moderately bright, yet they are on the whole, perhaps, 

 rather more diaphanous than var. dara. As a local race, however, its 

 chief character is the much darker ground colour of the fore-wings. 

 This variety as diagnosed l)y Staudinger " parcissime squamata, albo 

 non mixta," reminds one strongly of ral)l)L'd males of the Scotch type, 

 or even of the starved aberration (starrata would make a good name) 

 which I have previously mentioned, in which health and colour alike are 

 gone. The orignial description however makes us understand that 

 Dalman's vanadis was not this starved form, but represents really good 

 males of the Scotch form of wliicli \n^ called the females — exulans — 

 var. ranadis. 



3. — The gTound colour of the males dark green, the females very 

 strongly marked with pale thoraces and pale nervures. Specimens in 

 the British ]\Iuseum collection from Glockner, whence the original types 

 came. The males close to var. vanadk, the females to 4Z/. Taken in 

 abundance with var. vanadis in the Val Grauson = exulans. 



