218 A CATALOCiUE OF THE LEPIDOPTEKA OF 



Next, as to tlie black or white spot on tlie nj^per wings. It 

 would appear that throughout the Continent of Europe, widely- 

 diffused as I shall hereafter shew Agestis to be, not a single speci- 

 men has been recorded as deviating from the type, even in latitudes 

 much colder than our own, whereas, in Britain, it extends north- 

 wards as far as our most northern local habitat, Bamborough, 

 mingled from Richmond, in Yorkshire, with the Artaxerxes form. 

 Even in the most southern parts of our island we have a few ex- 

 amples recorded which link the types together. The oldest, I 

 quote from Stephens' work, under Ai^taxerxes — •'' I once observed 

 it on Dartmoor, 23rd August, 1823. — Dr. Leach;'''' and Mr. Stain- 

 ton, in his Manual, under Agestis says: "A singular variety, 

 with a white spot on the upperside, in the centre of the fore- 

 wing, was taken near Brighton, last July (1855), by Mr. H. 

 Cooke. The underside entirely agreed with the ordinary appear- 

 ance of Agestis^ Mr. Bond, one of our best out-of-door Natu- 

 ralists, and an excellent Lepidopterist, informs me that he has 

 occasionally seen a specimen in the South, with a small white 

 spot on the wing." Mr. Vaughan says " he once took a speci- 

 men near Bristol, with a clear white ring round the black dot 

 in the anterior wing ; and Mr. Sircom, in a communication to 

 the "Zoologist," 1844 (p. 773), mentions other similar cases in 

 the South. From Yorkshire, northw^ards, these white- sjDotted 

 specimens are numerous, and ultimately, it would seem, the only- 

 form we have. I think, therefore, we may reasonably conclude 

 that the presence of a white or of a black spot will not suffice 

 to establish the fact of there being two species. 



Finally, we have to consider the point of ocellated or non-ocel- 

 lated spots on the underside ; in other words, whether the absence 

 or the presence of minute black dots in the centres of the wdiite 

 spots underneath be sufficient to divide the specimens into two 

 species. I may premise that the presence of this black dot in the 

 discoidal spot of the underside of the anterior wings destroys the 

 Fabrician and Haworthian "puncto medio utrinque albo," as w^ell 

 as Stephens' " utrinque macula discoidale albti," at once; and yet 

 the latter author seems to have overlooked the fact that his 

 variety /3, as given above, necessarily had this effect! The ex- 



