66 THE entomoloctISt's record. 



Milliere gives {Annales des Sc. Xat. Sor. Cannes, 1880, pp. 4-6), 

 some details as to the variation of this species, and describes three 

 forms, placida, Friv., fervhia, Stand., and subniijra, Mill. He avers 

 that placida, Friv., from Turkey and Asia Minor, is, in spite of 

 Staudinger's assertion to the contrary, si)nply a variety of P. fiiliiiinosa, 

 characterised by its larger size and by the presence of a small red point 

 above the black cellular spot in the upper wings, and avers that he 

 took a specimen at light on August 21st, 1880, at St. Martin 

 Lantosque. He does not say whether his figure of placida (pi. viii., 

 fig. 5) is or is not this French example, which looks to lis a not very 

 extraordinary specimen of P. fulifiinosa. Of the xa.!'. fervida he gives a 

 characteristic figure (pi. viii., fig. 6), and states that it is not rare on 

 the Mediterranean littoral, and in the mountains of the Alpes-Maritimes 

 to about 1000 metres elevation. In describing his mbnigra he speaks 

 of " the type," by which, no doubt, he means our var. vievidionalia, 

 of which mhniijra is evidently a slight aberration, with somewhat 

 pointed wings. He describes it as having its forewings very pointed 

 at the apex, of a dark maroon-brown, and with the black band on the 

 hindwings extremely narrow. The specimen he figures he took at light 

 at Cannes : he adds that snbnifira does not appear to occur at St. 

 Martin Lantosque, but that it seems to be particularly abundant at 

 Ariege and at Amelie-les-Bains, whence, in 1864, he reared it from 

 the larval stage. In the latest edition of Staudinger's (ataloij 

 (3rd ed.), the author gives Transcaspia and southern Europe as 

 the range of var. fervida. He also gives Transcaspia as within the 

 range of the central Asiatic form, which was described [Mem. sur 

 fjji., v., 84 ; vi., 14) by Alpheraky, under the name of var. pidrendrnta. 

 His description reads as follows : — 



Alls anticis opacis, hirsute squamatis, grisescentibus, posticis pallidioiibus, 

 thorace abdomineque griseseentibus pallidioiibus. 



Alpheraky adds that this form was originally described from Lob- 

 Noor and northeast Thibet, but was afterwards found to be widely 

 distributed as an Asiatic form of P. fuUfiinosa. He notes that it is 

 greyer and more opaque than the type,* the scales being placed more 

 vertically; the forewings vary from yellow-grey to brown-grey ; the 

 hindwings are less rosy, paler and more transparent, the (? s seem 

 nearer to the fen-ida form than the $ s. Staudinger notes {Cat., 3rd 

 ed., p. 365) it as: " Pallidior alis anterioribus subdiaphanis, thorace 

 abdomineque griseseentibus. Tura, Thian, Gobi." 



Leech {Trans. Ent. Sor. London, 1899, p. 162) records fidii/inosa 

 from Amurland and Japan, but, with the exception of stating that 

 " two examples of the iorm bo realis. Stand., were in Fryer's collection," 

 he gives us no information about the Japanese examples. Leech 

 further sinks Alpheraky's var. pulceridenta into the type form, fiditjinosa, 

 a remarkable procedure, but not more so than many other strange 

 things he does in this direction, and one would like to see Fryer's 

 specimens that he refers to borealis before accepting them as such. The 

 wide range of latitude over which Japan extends leads one to surmise 

 that a wide range of variation in the specimens taken there would 

 occur. 



Of the American form I know nothing. According to Lugger 



One suspects that Alphoiaky means the ordinary central European form. 



