IIEJIEOPHILA FLANTAGINIS : ITS ABERRATIONS AND VARIETIES, 191 



time that I saw this species in great abundance was amongst a bed of 

 Alpine rhododendi-ons, at a height of about 7,000 feet, on that face of 

 the Mont de hi Saxe that slopes towarde the Val Ferrex. It was 

 towards the end of an afternoon in early August (about 5.30 p.m.), 

 and they were flying wildly about. I netted a few specimens but 

 having no empty boxes, brought none away with me, and we did not 

 visit the spot again. However, I saw quite enough to learn how 

 variable the species was. There were typical (yellow-) and hospita- 

 coloured specimens of the obsolcta form, with apparently every inter- 

 mediate form, so far as the black markings were concerned, in both 

 colours (yellow and white), up to the real )iiatronalis form. Then I 

 saw several on Monte Eowan, on the afternoon of July 28th, 1895, 

 but it was left for Dr. Chapman to get a long series of the species. 

 This he did, finding it towards the end of August (1895), on a grassy 

 and heathy slope on the north side of the Oberalp Valley, a mile 

 below the pass, at about 7,000 feet in elevation. The males were 

 flying freely in the afternoon sun, the females difficult to obtain. 

 Out of fifty specimens brought home by Dr. Chapman, only two are 

 females. The males, however, exhibit well the various phases of 

 variation in markings that I have described. There are ordinarily 

 three colour tints in the hind-wings — bright yellow {Intea), pale 

 yellow {ftava), and white [alba) — as distinguished by Zetterstedt, 

 and as each of these colours give specimens exhibiting the three 

 grades of markings in the hind-wings, viz., the obsolete [obsolvta) 

 represented by fig. 1, the typical, and the very dark (niatronaUs) 

 represented by fig. 2, we may form the following table : — 

 (1).— Bright yellow (Z//f('aJ form: — [a) ab. liitea-ohsoh'ta, n. ab. (with few black 

 markings on hind-wings, PI. V., fig. Ij. (6) pl<nit<t(funs, L. (normal 

 markings). {<■) ab. mutroiidlix, Frr. (hind-wings heavily marked with black, 

 PL v., fig. 2). 

 (2). — Pale yellow {flava) form: — {<i) ah. /h(v<t-ob^olet(i, n. ab. (/<) ab. Jhira.n. ab. 



(c) &h. ^flava-niatronali'i, n. ab. 

 (3). — White {(liha) form : — (a) ab. alha-ohsolcta , n. ab. {h) ab. hospita, Schiff. 

 (r) ab. allia-matronalis, n. ab. 

 One female, however, of the Oberalp captures has the hind-wings 

 distinctly red, and I find this is occasionally the case in English, and 

 frequently in Scotch, specimens. One with rosy hind-wings is men- 

 tioned by Mr. Home {Hnt. lire., iii., p. 58). This therefore gives us 

 a fourth series : — - 



(4). — Pied [nifu) form : — [u] ab. nifa-ohsoleta, n. ab. (//) ab. ni/a, n. ab. (c) ab. 

 rufa-matromdh, n. ab. [In series, this would precede (1) above]. 

 I have noted that the females of our British specimens frequently 

 have an orange costal streak running along the edge of the fore-wings. 

 This appears to become more common as we advance to the east, 

 until, in Armenia and Caucasus, the costal area is red. Staudinger 

 calls this race var. caucasica, and diagnoses it as: "alls posterioribus 

 subangulaHs, alarum anteriarum costa in (? , et in ? , rufa," adding 

 that it is probably a Darwinian species. 



The large size of the abdomen of the female is frequently accom- 

 panied by a decrease in the wing area, sometimes also with a failure 

 of pigment development. Indeed, pathological aberrations, in which 

 one or both hind-wings have partly lost their pigmental matter, are 

 not at all uncommon. The abdomina of the females also show 

 marked colour dimorphism. Of 30 ? specimens in my series 28 have 

 red abdomina, 2 yellow, an overwhelming preponderance in favour 



