216 A CATALOGUE OF THE LEPIDOPTERA OF 



descri2:)tion applies equally to l^oth ; and the white discoidal spot 

 underneath, in Artaxerxes, is in fact replaced in Agestis by a dis- 

 coidal ocellus. 



So rare, however, was this Scotch butterfly, that Donovan 

 tells us, in 1813 (when he figured it), that, with the only 

 other exception of Mr. Macleay's, all the London cabinets had 

 drawings made of it, and neatly pinned into their drawers as 

 a substitute. Just at that period our celebrated countryman, 

 the late Dr. Leach, had entered on his studies at Edinburgh, 

 and soon found it in abundance ; and from that locality all the 

 cabinets of Europe have been supplied, and Scotland considered 

 its only native country. When, a little more than thirty 

 years ago, a few Entomologists sprung up here, we were, 

 in 1827, not a little gratified by the capture of both the so- 

 called species on our own coast, and Mr. Stephens announced 

 this the first appearance of Artaxerxes in England — (except a 

 single specimen hereafter referred to) — in his " Illustrations," in 

 which he added to his description, doubtless from a Scotch speci- 

 men, a variety /S — " the white spots on the under-surface of all 

 the wings, with minute black pupils," and alluded to its varia- 

 tion, " like its congeners in the number and disposition of the 

 white spots on the inferior margin of the wings, as well as in 

 the width and obliteration of the orange marginal fascia." — He 

 thus removed every distinction, as a species, except the white 

 discoidal spot of the anterior wings. After this time specimens 

 from our localities were generally dispersed amongst th« cabinets 

 of Britain ; and from a number of these, given by me to the late 

 Mr. Stephens, as mentioned above, he thought he detected a 

 species intermediate between Agestis and Artaxerxes^ which he 

 haj)pily named Scdmacis ; and, in the 3rd vol. of his " Illustra- 

 tions," p. 235, published in May, 1831, thus characterised: 

 " Alis fusco-nigris, subtus fuscescentibus maculis subocellatis, 

 anticis supra in masculis puncto discoidali atro, in fcKminis albo, 

 posticis utrinque fascia submarginali rubra ;" and from that 

 period to the present, as above stated, the dispute as to the three 

 insects has existed. My impression at that time was that ours 

 was really distinct, but I had then seen only few specimens of 



