THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELITiEA. 11 



observation of Riibrs without some feeling of surprise, since, so 

 far as one can judge from the description, the larva is quite of 

 the usual type of the group, differing only in having more white 

 in the ground colour, going in this respect apparently somewhat 

 further than the larva of its nearest relative, dictijnna, which 

 shows more white than any other of the group with whose larva 

 I am acquainted. 



It does not appear to me to be worth while to quote the short 

 descriptions of the larvae of " veronica,'" athalia, and " partJienie " 

 given by Dorfmeister in the ' Verhandlung des zool.-bot. Vereins,' 

 iii. p. 136, since the first two might as well refer to one as 

 to another of the group, and the third in which the spines are 

 said to stand on pale flesh-coloured bases merely serves to show 

 that he was quite unacquainted with the larva of partJienie, 

 a fact which is made absolutely certain by his description of the 

 corresponding pupa, which differs in every characteristic from 

 that of real parthenie. 



It is a matter of great regret to me that I have so far been 

 unable to obtain any information on the early stages of varia, 

 but of the only two friends from whom I should have been likely 

 to obtain reliable information on the subject, the one, Chanoine 

 Favre, died eome time ago, and the other, his collaborator, 

 M. Arnold Wullschlegel, has now for many months been com- 

 pletely paralysed, a fact which many English collectors in the 

 Rhone Valley will, I am sure, learn with the greatest regret. 



The name of M. Wullschlegel reminds me of a rather absurd 

 discussion which took place some few years back as to whether 

 the larva of athalia hybernates gregariously. Knowing how 

 frequently he had bred the species, I inquired as to his expe- 

 rience, and he informed me that they invariably hybernated in 

 a common "tent" like the other Melitteas, remaining together 

 after hybernation until they had eaten the plant at the roots of 

 which (of course not underground) they had passed the winter, 

 and then separating. I had only asked him the question in 

 confirmation of my own experience, having found many "nests" 

 of athalia larvae at the early period of their hybernation. 



Buckler describes the pupa of athalia as follows : — " Half an 

 inch in length, very plump, with the usual angles much rounded 

 off ; the abdominal rings bear little rounded eminences — traces 

 of the larval spines ; the tip of the abdomen is bent back at 

 nearly a right angle, and there is a slight depression between 

 the abdomen and thorax, which is broad and rounded. The 

 wing-covers are well defined and rather prominent, the warmish 

 white colour and texture of the pupa-skin may be compared to 

 that of biscuit china ; each abdominal ring is adorned with a 

 transverse brownish orange bar, having on its hinder edge 

 squarish black spots, or sometimes a black bar with orange 

 spots, and followed by a row of tiny black dots. The back of 



