PAPlLIONIDTi. — POXTIA. 17 



Sp. 2. Chariclea. Plate III.* f. 1. $ , — f. 2. % . — Alls ulhis^antkls 

 supra cinerascente nehuUs nigris ciUisque /lavo-albidis, snhtus 

 inacuUs duahus nigris^ posticis subtus lutescentibus, nigro valde 

 irroratis. (Exp. alar. 2. unc. 3 — G lin.) 



Po. Chariclea. Stcph. Catal. 



This insect, which has hitherto either been confounded with the preceding, or 

 unnoticed by entomologists, is considerably smaller than it : both sexes have 

 the upper surface of all the wings white, with the tip of the anterior wings 

 above ash-coloured, without any internal indentations, in the female deeply 

 clouded within with black, and margined without in both sexes by immacu- 

 late yellowish-white cilia: the female, as in Po. Brassica*, has also two round 

 transverse deep black spots and a clavate one on the thinner edge of the 

 wings : the costa in the male is dusky, or ash-coloured, and in the female 

 yellowish : the posterior wings in both sexes have a small black costal spot — 

 a character common to all the true indigenous Pontile : beneath, each sex has 

 the tips of the anterior wings clear yellow, and two transverse black spots ; 

 and the posterior wings deep yellow, very thickly powdered throughout with 

 minute dusky or black spots: the body is blackish above, with flavescent 

 down, and white beneath ; the antenna? resemble those of P. Brassicic. 



•\ Var. $. With the apical spot of the anterior wings unclouded, very pale, 

 cinereous, and the female with two transverse and an obsolete clavate black 

 spot above. In the collection of Mr. Haworth ; who has distinguished it 

 by the trivial name of praecox, from the early period of its appearance in the 

 winged state. 



The chief points of discrimination between this species and the preceding insect 

 consist in its inferior size, the dissimilar colour of the apical spot on the anterior 

 wings above, and the integrity of its inner edge, the pale cilia with which it is 

 fringed, and the deeper colour, and more thickly irrorated under surface 

 of the posterior wings : which characters, taken collectively, appear fully suf- 

 ficient to warrant its separation as a species, exclusively of its period of flight. 

 Now, if it be a vernal brood of Po. Brassica? alone, by what process do the 

 colour and the shape of the markings become changed? and whence its 

 inferior size ? The first question has been answered, at least so far as regards 

 the colour, upon the supposition tliat the solar rays are not sufficiently powerful 

 at the period when the insect is produced, to produce the intense hue so con- 

 spicuous in the supposed sestival brood, or Po. Brassicsc ; but as this last species 

 also occurs early in the month of May, that solution is not satisfactory, and 

 I am of opinion that Po. Chariclea appears also a second time towanls the 

 end of June ; at all events, that part of the question relative to the variation 

 in the form of the markings remains unsolved, and upon a further investiga- 

 tion the stabiUty of the other solution becomes questionable, as the under 

 surface of the inferior wings are more deeply irrorated with black, and their 

 ground colour is more intense than in Po. Brassicie. A\'ith respect to the 

 other question — the inferiority of size— that has been answered upon the pre- 

 sumption that the animal diminishes in bulk from the increased period that 

 Haustfllata. Vol. I. 1st Axchst, IS-^T. n 



