VANESSA. By H. Stichel. 203 



with enlarged Llack spots, the hindmarginal spot of the forewing often being united with the middle costal 

 spot. Northern polar zone and the adjacent southern districts, only in 2 broods. Transitions occur on the 

 Amur, and similar specimens occur as occasional aberrations among the nymotypical subspecies. — ichnusa idinusa. 

 Bon. (62f ) is distinguished particularly by the less angulate wings, the deeper red ground-colour, and usually by 

 the absence of the discal and hindmarginal spots of the forewing. Closely allied to the following race, transi- 

 tions from the nymotypical subspecies to ichnusa occur in the southern districts of the latter. Sardinia, Corsica. 

 — turcica Stgr. (62f) is brighter red, the discal and hind marginal spots being reduced in size ( ? also absent), turcica. 

 South-Eastern Europe: Balkan Peninsula, Bukovina, Bulgaria etc. (together with the nymotypical form), 

 Asia Minor and ( ?) Central Asia. ab. turcicoides Stgr. stands in the same relation to turcica as urticoides to turcicoides. 

 urticae; Northern Persia, at the highest altitudes. — nxxdi Gr.-Grsh. is characterized by the reduced or obsolescent nixa. 

 blue marginal spots, broader distal marginal band and the quite dark underside. Central Asia : Pamir, Darvaz, 

 2700 m*). — rizana Moore (63a, rainy-season form) has more or less angulate wings, with moderately broad lizana. 

 black spots; the form with less angular wings (dry-season form, cf. Moore, Lep. Ind. IV., t. 317. fig. 1, la) has 

 the yellow colour between and at the costal spots of the forewing more conspicuous, the hindwing bearing a 

 yellowish tint at the dentate edge of the black basal area. The blue marginal spots are absent from both forms; 

 the underside is entirely dark. The Himalayas are its true home, but the insect touches in the North-VVest 

 (Kashniir) the Palaearctic territory and therefore is mentioned here. North- West Himalayas to Sikkim and 

 Bhutan, up to 5000 m. — ladakensis Moore is an alpine form of the previous, differing in the less angular wings ladakensis. 

 and in the black markings being enlarged in a similar way as in polaris, the hindmarginal spot being some- 

 times united with the central spot or with this and also the first costal one. As in the dry-season form of 

 rizana the blue marginal spots of the forewing are absent and the ground-colour is yellowish in places. North- 

 West Himalayas as far as Ladak, Yarkand, Karakorum and Western Tibet. Is a connecting link between 

 nixa and rizana, ascending in the mountains up to 5000 m. — chinensis Leech (= thibetana Aust.) (62f) is larger diinensis. 

 on an average; the ground-colour bright red-brown, the spots normal in size, hardly any yellow scaling between 

 them, very large blue spots in the black marginal band of botli wings. West China, Eastern Tibet. — connexa connexa. 

 Btlr. (= jessoensis Weistn., japonica Fisch.) (62 f) approaches the nymotypical subspecies in colour and facies, 

 but the black spots are large and deep in tint, and the middle costal spot is connected with the strongly widened 

 hindmarginal spot, forming a broad band which is twice elbowed; there are no blue spots at the margin of the 

 forewing. Japan: Hakodate, Yesso. Specimens identical or similar to this form have been obtained by experi- 

 menting with low temperature, such artificially produced varieties often resembling natural geographical races. 

 The limits of the area inhabited by connexa is not known; it has likewise not been ascertained with certainty, 

 if or to what extent there is variability in colour and shape according to season or altitude. 



V. caschmirensis Roll. (62f, dry-season form) is similar to the preceding species; the ground-colour is casdmirensis. 

 dull grey with ill-defined large spots placed as in the previous species, the underside being completely dark 

 with black pencilling. Also in this species differ the seasonal forms rather conspicuously from each other. 

 The rainy-season form has the ground-colour of a purer pale red-brown (less dusted with blackish), closely 

 resembling rizana (cf. figure in Moore, Lep. Ind. IV. t. 316), while specimens occur in the dry-season which 

 are almost completely black (according to Fruhstorfer). The specific distinctness of caschmirensis appears 

 doubtful, but the insect flies in the Himalayas together with various races of urticae and is said to have a different 

 cpforpillar, described as follows: head black, almost square, slightly hairy, bearing on both sides some short 

 sharp spines, each ending in a fine hair; face and cheeks minutely tuberculated, the segments of the body slightly 

 hairy, armed with a dorsal and 3 lateral rows of long branched blackish spines; body dark purpurescent-black, 

 almost black, paler beneath, with two dorsal and two sublaleral slender yellow maculated lines, the spaces 

 between them being covered with numerous minute yellow dots (Moore). The larva feeds on nettles (Urtica- 

 ceae). The butterfly occurs in several In'oods and is found in the mountains uji to about 5500 m, far above 

 the snow-line. In the Himalayas from Kashmir to Sikkim, Bhutan and further east; Chinese Tibet. 



V. polychloros L. (63a). Similar to the preceding species, mostly larger, the ground-colour more yellowish, polydiloros. 

 the arrangement of the spots as in those species, but the forewing bears an additional black spot before the 

 hind angle. Both wings with yellowish submarginal lunules, upon which follows a black band which is likewise 



*) Specimens with the upperside ([uite similar and with but slight vestiges of blue marginal spots on the forewing 

 are before me from the Rilodagh (South Bulgaria, 1000 m), from the collection of .A. K. Dresowsky. Sofia. Their underside, 

 however, is coloured as in the nymotyi)ical form. 



