62 A CHAPTER ON ZYG^NA MINOS. 



2 and 4, 3 and 5, are always confluent. The collar and 

 shoulder pieces never with a whitish mixture. The great 

 difference in the united spots 3 and 5 is shown by the 

 figures. 



The specimens from the Alps and the south are distin- 

 guished by the wings being more thickly scaled and therefore 

 darker, and by the shaggy aud black-haired abdomen, whereby 

 the shorter steel-blue scales are concealed. I imagine these 

 specimens are the Pluto, W. V. ; at any rate I have never 

 seen any other Pluto. I never saw a specimen with the 

 anterior wings as broad behind as Hiibner's fig. 88 (^Py- 

 thia). My fig. 14 shows a specimen in which the securi- 

 form spot is hardly expanded behind. Fig. 13 shows a very 

 peculiar cut of the anterior wing of the male. Fig. 15 a 

 female, in which the red is much expanded. In Fig. 16 the 

 securiform spot is much attenuated towards the base. 



The apex of the hind wing in the male has sometimes 

 a rather broad tinge of black. See Ent. Zeit. V. pp. 39 

 and 85. 



Rather widely distributed ; abundant near Ratisbon, and ' 

 the earliest Zycjcena to appear. June. The larva on various 

 low plants. 



ZYG^NA MINOS. 



[From Herrich-Schaffer's Schmetterlinge von Europa, VI., Appendix 

 to Vol. II. p. 43, published before 185(3.] 



Minos. — In one female specimen (from Herr Kaden) of 

 unusual size, spot 3 is only connected with 5 by a slender 

 line, and 5 is much contracted at rib 5. In another equally 

 large, but much wasted specimen, the costa is red for three- 

 fourths of its length, and then united with a very large unde- 

 teimined spot 5. The latter is united with the magnified. 



