NOKTHUMBERLAND A>i U DUKHAM. 215 



great work, we first find Artaxerxes indicated as a species, and 

 described " from a drawing by the liand of William Jones, Esq., 

 of Chelsea."* Thus matters stood till 1803, when our eminent 

 Lepidopterist, the late A. H. Haworth, published the first por- 

 tion of his celebrated " Lepidoptera Britannica," in which A gestis, 

 under the name of Idas, Lewin, and Artaxerxes, were first both 

 fully described and contrasted. It is well known this author 

 described from nature, and I may, therefore, be allowed to give 

 his diagnoses and some extracts from his descriptions. The 

 former, Agestis (his Idas), he thus chai'acterises : " Alis supra in 

 utraque sexu fuscis maculis marginalibus rufis, subtus cinereis 

 punctis ocellaribus," adding in his description, " puncto nigro 

 disci primorum, ordineque communi macularum rufarum ad 

 marginem posticum, ciliis albis." Of the latter, Artaxerxes, al- 

 most in the very words of Fabricius,| he says : " Alis nigris, 

 anticis puncto medio utrinque albo, posticis lunulis rufiS;, subtus 

 margine albo rufo punctato ;" and he then proceeds to describe it 

 from a specimen taken in Scotland, and sent him by Dr. Skrim- 

 shire, a well-known Aurelian of that period. We may observe 

 the difference from his adopted diagnosis and note his carefulness 

 in his own description of this single specimen. He says : 

 " Pr^cedenti (Idas) simillima at minor, maculis albis sine pupilla, 

 subtus loco ocellorum. Alee supra fusca3 fascia communi 

 lunularum rufarum ad marginem posticum punctoque albo disci 

 primorum utrinque. Subtus cinerascentes, antics fascia postica 

 alba ex maculis 6 contiguis ; pone has maculis 5 itidem contiguis 

 transversis rufis, singulis utrinque lunula minuta nigra alteraque 

 alba munitis : linea marginali atra et ad terminos venarum latius 

 atra seu quasi punctata, ciliis albis, alee posticee subtus fere ut in 

 praecedente sed maculis rotundis albis epupillatis loco ocellorum." 

 Thus, in reality, he makes the essential difference between them 

 to consist in the one having a black spot on the disk of the an- 

 terior wings and ocellated spots beneath, and the other having a 

 white spot on the disk of both sides of the anterior wings, and 

 white spots, without pupils beneath, since all the rest of his 



* Don. Brit. Ins. 1. c. 



t H. R. Alis integerrimis nitrris ; anticis jiuncto nicdin alhn, pnsticis iiinulis nifis, subtus 

 jnargine albo rufo punctato. — Fab. E. A'. u( st/jua. 



