52 A CHAPTER ON ZYG^NA MINOS. 



excavation, and the margin is not gradually lost in the ground- 

 colour. The portion which belongs to the upper spot (5) is 

 always of a much deeper red. 



Since there are also specimens of var. h without that emar- 

 gination of the securiform spot, and again others of the 

 typical species where there is at least a faint impression 

 there, I perceive nowhere a decided character by which a 

 specific separation could be effected. But I consider it pos- 

 sible that, in the course of time, the characters may be more 

 firmly made out, and that then, perhaps, a difference of 

 species may be discussible. 



Since that Nature, in the formation of species of Zygcence 

 (productive or reproductive) is not yet at an end, appears to 

 me conclusive, from the constant copulation of specimens of 

 different species without constraintj and when in a condition 

 of peifoct Ubertij. 



But just as the amount of red on the upper side of the 

 anterior wings of Z. Minos decreases with us, it increases 

 towards the south. 



In a very iew of our Glogau specimens of var. & (4 ^ ), 

 I find at the base of the w'ing, between the sub-dorsal ner- 

 vure and the inner margin, a short, red, faint, little streak 

 (var./). 



On the other hand, in an Austrian male, which otherwise 

 resembles var. a, this entire space is covered with thickly 

 scattered red scales; and spot 1 reaches, filling up the entire 

 cell, as far as the first branch, going from the sub-costal ner- 

 vure to the costa: hence the sub-costal and median nervures 

 are clothed with red scales, the spots melt into one another 

 (var. g). This, therefore, is the passage to the var. Polygalce^ 

 Esper, or Erythrus, Bdv., which I have not yet met with. 



The apex of the hind wings is usually dark grey in the 

 males, but rarely so in the females j in many males it is 



