NYMPHALINAE: PIIYCIODES TIIAROS. 



633 



and an apical lialf; comparativeh' little compressed, even in the apical half, the tip 

 only bent downAvard. 



Described from 963 , 40 9 , and 27 uncertain ; of these about one-fifth were V. t. marcia. 

 The largest New England specimen I have seen was one received since these measurements 

 were taken. It is a ? captured at Blanford, Mass., by Dr. G. Dimmock; the fore wing meas- 

 ures 21.5 nun. in length. 



Abberrations. P. t. packarpii {MelUaea packardii Saund., Pack. Guide ins., 25G-57 ; 

 figured in Edw. . Butt. N. Amer. , ii, Phyciodes, 11). Dr. J. C. Merrill captured at Nahant, 

 Mass., a remarkably suffused male, hardly recognizable as belonging to this species. 

 The upper surface is almost entirely blackish brown, the only orange fulvous present on 

 the/or*' ichigs being a small, transverse spot at the extremity of the cell boi'deriug the 

 limiting vein, a transverse series of small, round spots, corresponding to the interior 

 of the chain crossing the middle of the cell, and a transverse series parallel to the 

 outer border, of five larger luuules, with blurred borders, iu the middle of the outer 

 half of the wing, the middle one, iu the upper median interspace, largest, decreasing 

 rapidly on either side. A similar disposition is shown on the hind loinys ; two partially 

 confluent, curving bands occupy the two cliains of circlets iu the basal half of the 

 wing, while a slender series of fulvous lunules, in the middle of the outer half of the 

 wing occupy, normally, the position of an outer bordering to the transverse, "wavy, 

 black lines beyond the middle of the wing. Beneath, the appearance is, if anything, 

 still more remarkable. The fore vnngs are dull tawny, the outer two-thirds of the 

 costal and the middle half of the inner border with broad, rounded patches of blackish 

 fuscous, excepting a slight dash of greenish yellow in the middle of the former just 

 below the costal edge ; and a not very broad, submarginal, blurred fuscous stripe, 

 vaguely formed of lunules, distant about the width of an interspace from the outer 

 border, and beyond which the border, except iu the upper median interspace, is strongly 

 tinged with ferruginous. The hind icings are of the usual tint, but the markings differ 

 from the type in altogether wanting the streaks of the basal half of the wing and in 

 being marked instead by a pair of faint, broad, partially intei'rupted, curving, dull 

 fulvous bauds, one crossing the wing just within the termination of the cell, the other 

 a little way beyond it; the round spots are faint and fulvous, and the double row of 

 submarginal lunules is supplanted, as on the fore wings, by a single series of coarse, 

 cinnamoneous, brown lunules ; the other apical markings are as in the usual type. 



Another somewhat similar specimen (but a female of the marcia type) is one first 

 described as a distinct species under the name of Melitaea packardii. It diflfers from 

 the male described above only in the greater extent of the fulvous markings, espec- 

 ially on the outer half of the fore wings, where they form a very broad belt iu the mid- 

 dle of the outer half, broken only by the blackish nervures. Below, it diflers from the 

 male in the following respect : on the fore icings tlie fulvous tint is deeper and purer, 

 the costal and inner margins are less infuscated and the submarginal streak is sup- 

 planted by the inner series of linear lunules, just as they occur in the normal types, 

 indeed more distinctly, yet as delicately, and continuous across the wing; beyond it, the 

 upper two subcostal, the upper median and the medio-submedian interspaces are 

 ochraceous. The hind wings are marked more distinctly at the base than in the male, 

 and in place of the bi'oad, faint, mesial band, the position of its inner border — that is, 

 the tip of the cell — is occupied Ijy a narrow, ill-defined, cinnamoneous, brown stripe, 

 beyond whicli the wing is almost wholly dull yellowish .silvery, excepting a larger, 

 very high, dull brownish, marginal luuule in the lower median and subcosto-median 



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