LÉPIDOPTÉROLOGIE COMPAREE 337 



Ithysia italica, sp. nov. (Harrison). PI. CLXII, Fig. 1584. 

 VVing- expanse : 38-42 mm. 



This species has been assigned to both alpina and grœcarïa by 

 varions authors, a f act that seems strange until one is acquamted 

 with the fact that very few, if any, of the older authors possessed 

 ail the forms. 



The first author who dealt with this form vvas Scriba {Bei- 

 trage, III, p. 215) in 1793, who imagined he was dealing with 

 Sulzer's alpina and used Roemer's emended name alpinaria for 

 it In this he was followed by Esper {Band 5, Heft 9) in 1803, 

 by Hùbner, in 1796, and later by Duponchel. It is noteworthy, 

 that Esper's form was the darker one, renamed jîorentina by Ste- 

 fanelli in 1882, and treated by him as a form of grœ caria, 

 Boisduval-Staudinger. As alpinaria, Bork-Scriba, was the first 

 form described and the name is invalid, I propose the name ita- 

 lica for the species. 



The ground colour of italica is grey faintly mixed with light 

 brown scales. We hâve the iisual three lines and the subterminal 

 band, but the first and médian lines are only weakly marked 

 except on the costa, where they are suffused. In the direction of 

 the second line we hâve a most important character to distinguish 

 italica from its congeners. Ail the lines start from the basai half 

 of the inner margin and then strike very obliquely outward until 

 vein I is reached. This character is quite reliable for separating 

 this species in ail its forms from the other two. After vein i the 

 first two lines go as in the other species but the second line, as in 

 alpina, then strikes across the wing to the lower angle of the 

 cell and then unlike that species, it continues parallel to the 

 termen which is not strongly curved near the costa. 



The médian line is midway between the first and second lines. 

 None of the lines are thickened, but become darker as they cross 

 the veins. The subterminal band, owing to the weakness of th? 



