MELITAEA. By Dr. A. Seitz. . 219 



Italy (^ ab. romana Calb.) resembling it very closely, bowever — is light orange-yellow, like occidentalis. but 

 very slightly duller and more sparsely spotted. — robertsi Btlr.. from Kandahar, is a small persea-foim in robertsi. 

 which the forewing is more elongate and the iiiadwing considerably smaller than in Persian specimens. .Moreover, 

 the upperside is duller and paler yellow, liie black markings being sparser and less sharply developed. — 

 deserticola Oberlh. (66d), from the Sahara, of all didi/ma-racei^ differs the most from the nymotypical form. The deserticola. 

 black distal l)order is absent from the bright ochreous wings, being replaced by black dots; the black is also 

 entirely wanting in the basal area, the dark colour being restricted to the middle of the wing. The head, 

 antennae, and abdomen, moreover, are pale orange-yellow, and even the larva of this form differs entirely 

 from that of ordinary didijma. Only in the most southern districts of Algeria. — In neera Fisch.-Wald. (66e), neera. 

 from South Russia and various districts of North Asia, the ground-colour is very fiery red in the cj and pale 

 reddish yellow in the ?. The hindwing almost without markings except the submarginal dots and the black 

 colour at the base, the forewing bearing a figure of 8 below the cell, which is sometimes also found in other 

 races. The black border is sharply defined and narrow, the fringes being intensely white. — turanica Stgr. turanka. 

 (66d) is a very large, more orange-coloured form with broad black distal border; beneath the orange bands 

 of the hindwing are traversed by broad vein-streaks of the ground-colour; in Turkestan, especially large and 

 typical specimens from the foothills of the Alexander Mts. — sutschana Stgr. (^= sibirica Riihl), from East sutsdiana. 

 Siberia is of a deeper red and has larger spots, the $$ being more strongly dusted with dark scaling. — ala «'«• 

 Stgr. (= latonia Gr.-Grsh.) (66f) is above in the $ remarkably similar to sibina. The wings are broadly edged 

 with deep black, the disc of the forewing being very sparsely spotted and that of the hindwing not at all. The 

 $ is almost exactly like ab. alpina, but the costal area of the hindwing is duller red and more sparsely spotted; 

 from Central Asia (Ferghana, Tian-shan, Alatau, Bokhara, etc.). — chitralensis Moore. (66f) is a very yellow dtitralensis. 

 small form from the Hindukush. — These Central Asiatic forms are nearly related to the Eastern Asiatic ones 

 which follow. The most conspicuous form is latonigena Ev. (66e), of which the $ has a very wide black margin, latonigena. 

 the (liscal spots of the forewing being arranged in an almost uninterrupted transverse band. The $ is still 

 more remarkable, the ground-colour being a dirty white and the black markings forming a net work; this form 

 flies in Eastern Siberia, where it is the only race in some places, while in others it occurs as an aberration 

 among other did y ma- forms. — A very peculiar $-forni is before me from the Karagatai Mts. The colour 

 resembles that of ab. alpina $$, but the pale pinkish yellow forewing contrasts prominently with the orange- 

 coloured hindwing in consequence of the reduction of the black markings, which quite disappear on the hind- 

 wing except for some vestiges and the marginal border. I call this form ab. bicolor ab. nov. (66f), Init it must bicolor. 

 be noted that not all the specimens from there are so very pale as the one figured, the markings of the hind- 

 wing being more or less feebly indicated. — mandchurica form. mw. (66e); the form from Manchuria may be mamidiunca. 

 thus named; it is distinguished by the elongate pointed forewing. Bright brownish yellow, with dentate black 

 border, which is broad on the hindwing; o with the hindwing almost without spots, $ with the forewing very 

 strongly spotted with black and shaded with dark; abdomen laterally spotted with orange-yellow on a white 

 ground. — Resembling the preceding in shape, but still larger and pale leather-yellow is a subspecies of which 

 I caught a larger series of quite similar specimens. Forewing with A'ery long costal margin, in the $ not much 

 more spotted than in the ^ and not shaded with dark, the dark distal border paler and narrower; the antennae 

 yellow, the abdomen also being almost uniformly honey-yellow. In Pechili; 1 call this form pekinensis form, pekinensis. 

 nov. (66e), as it occurs occasionally in the streets of the suburbs of Pekin. — didymoides Ev. (66e) also is similar didymoides. 

 to mandchurica, varying strongly in size and being widely distributed at the east coast of China. North 

 Chinese specimens appear to be much larger than those from Shanghai; but above all the forewing is much 

 shorter than in the similarly coloured and marked mandchurica, and the black margin of the hindwing is not 

 dentate at its proximal edge, but evenly curv^ed. — polaris Gr.-Grsh. is beneath exactly like the preceding, poians. 

 but above resembles more trivia: the groimd-colour of tlie $ is pale I'eddisb above. In the more northern 

 coast-districts of East Asia. — didymina Stgr. {66f) might be regarded a small form of neera; but the ground- didymina. 

 colour, especially in the <S, is not so bright and the black dots before the margin are paler and more reduced, 

 the colour of the underside, moreover, is not so intense as in neera, and the $ is paler throughout. — Like 

 the butterflies of this species so also vary the caterpillars. The larva of nymotypical didynia is lighter or darker 

 lead-grey with velvety black intersegmental rings and reddish brown or yellowish brown, soft, spine-like processes, 

 there being a yellow line above the legs; venter grey, with dark mesial line; head yellowish lu'own. On low 

 plants like Plantago, Scrophularia, Linaria, X'eronica, \'aleriana, Viola, etc. At Biskra I bred the form deser- 

 ticola from almost uniformly black larvae, which I found at the top of bushes yards high. Pupa in Central 

 Europe likewise leaden grey to dirty yellow, with the shoulders somewjiat jirojecting and small tubercles on the 

 abdomen, being minutely and regularly spotted with black. The butterflies have in the north of the distri- 

 bution-area one brood, which flies in July, in the south two broods, one in May and the other in the summer. 

 They are extremely common wherever the species occurs, visiting flowers of all kinds, particularly Compositae, 

 such as thistles and scabious. As the c?c? do not fly fast and keep the wings spread out horizontally, their red 

 colour lends them a very beautiful and brilliant appearance. The flight of the $$ is more irregular on account 

 of the generally very heavy abdomen. The mating is usually effected sitting on flowers, the sexes sometimes 

 remaining united fcr a long time. 



