178 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



heimer — or of athalia, or of " corythalia " ; that it approaches 

 nearer to the first on the upper side and to the second on the 

 under side, and gives as the best distinctive mark the absence 

 of the inner edging line of the border, of course — though he does 

 not say so — on the under side. There has never been any doubt 

 as to the identity of this spe3ies, and the under side always 

 serves for the determination of specimens, though the inner 

 edging line is occasionally indicated, and the upper side is 

 sometimes astonishingly close to merope. It has also escaped 

 synonyms, except that Herrich-Schiiffer spells the name asterie. 

 With regard to its ancestral position more must be said later. 



Britomartis, which is usually, and I have no doubt wrongly, 

 given as a variety of aurelia, was in point of fact described and 

 separated from athalia before what is now regarded as its type- 

 form. It was first named and described in the first number 

 of the Breslau * Zeitschrift fiir Entomologie,' p. 2 (1847), by 

 Assmann, the first editor of the magazine. His description runs 

 as follows : — " Melitaea alis integris,* ferrugineis nigro-reticulatis ; 

 posticis subtus flavidis, fasciis tribus cinnamoneis, maculisque 

 duabus subalbicantibus, linea nigra ante marginem exteriorem 

 flavum vel cinnamoneum." He then proceeds to give a more 

 detailed description, in which he says that the ground colour is 

 generally rather darker than athalia on the upper side, and that 

 the nervures and bands are more or less suft'used, in particular 

 the basal half of the hind wing shows only the one light spot of 

 the ground colour. The same darker ground colour obtains on 

 the under side of the fore wing, but there is often a second row 

 of lighter spots (i. e. nearer the base than the lunules) as in 

 dictynna. The black spots are also larger. The most distinctive 

 marks are, he says, afforded by the under side hind wing, as in 

 the other species. The lighter bands (which he treats as the 

 ground colour) are light yellow, the darker vary from a very 



* Assmann very properly objected to the expression "alis dentatis," 

 used in previous descriptions of Melitaeas; even Borkhausen's " subdentatis" 

 was only a partial correction. Principally from this point of view he gives 

 the following amended definitions of the related species (aurelia not having 

 at that time been described) : — 



"M. parthenie. Melitaea alis integris subferrugineis fusco reticulatis; 

 posticis subtus flavidis ; fasciis tribus cinnamoneis unaque albidula ; linea 

 nigra ante marginem exteriorem ferrugineum. 



^' M. dictynna. Meliteea alis integris saturate ferrugineis nigro reticu- 

 latis ; posticis subtus flavis ; fasciis tribus badiis, tertia nigropunctata ; linea 

 nigra ante marginem exteriorem badium. 



"M. athalia. Melitaea alis integris ferrugineis nigro reticulatis; posticis 

 subtus flavidis ; margine exteriore concolore post lineam nigram ; fasciis 

 tribus fulvis. 



" M. asteria. Melitaea alis integris sordide ferrugineis, fusco reticulatis; 

 posticis subtus flavidis; fasciis duabus cinnamoneis; absque linea nigra ante 

 marginem exteriorem flavidum." 



This last is the first regular description of asteria, though it is merely a 

 condensation of Freyer's moi-e diffuse account of the species. 



