THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELITiEA. 197 



neighbourhood of Coh-e, but further south it must be regularly 

 double-brooded, as it occurs in late July at Eoveredo, and in 

 August near Locarno. Except as above cited, aurelia appears 

 to have no synonyms. Herbst's parthenie, ' Atlas,' pi. 283, 

 figs. 1-4, referred here by Staudinger, appears to represent this 

 species on the upper side, and varia on the under ; while the 

 text in vol. x. p. 238 (1800) seems to refer to the second brood 

 of parthenie. 



Varia, hitherto regarded as a mountain form of parthenie, 

 but which I shall treat, at present at any rate, as a separate 

 species, owes its name to Bischoff (to whom it was correctly 

 assigned by the succeeding generation of entomologists), though 

 it is first found in print, but referred to its real author, in Meyer- 

 Dur's * Schmetterlinge,' in 1851. He describes it as differing 

 from parthenie only in its small size, but his illustration flatly 

 contradicts his description. The male is by no means identical 

 with parthenie, and the female does not resemble any form of 

 that insect whatever. They are in fact good illustrations of the 

 mountain species known to us as varia to-day. Although this 

 was the first appearance of the name, the insect had been 

 excellently illustrated by Herrich-Schaffer in 1843 as a variety 

 of athalia on pi. 57, figs. 270-274, though both females are con- 

 siderably less suffused than is usual, as much so, however, as 

 specimens I have seen from Campfer in the Eugadine. The fol- 

 lowing may serve as a concise description: " Melitsea parva, 

 summas Alpes habitans, alls fulvis nigro fasciatis, plerumque 

 apud foeminam nigro viridi-tincto obfuscatis ; subtus, anticis 

 parte exteriore paullum, parte interiore multum, prsecipue apud 

 marem, nigro signatis, posticis fasciis duabus fulvis et tribus 

 flavis vel albicantibus, centrali et basali sfepe albis." This 

 species (or variety) is without synonyms. 



Lastly, it seems necessary to deal separately with berisalensis, 

 as it was treated in Favre's ' Macro-lepidopteres du Valais ' as a 

 distinct species, especially as its history has been complicated 

 by its unfortunate name, and by the consequent passing off by 

 dealers (and others) of Berisal specimens of athalia, which in 

 no way resemble it, as veritable specimens of this insect. 

 Special facilities which have come in my way for making myself 

 acquainted with the ins and outs of this history, as well as a 

 long and somewhat intimate knowledge of the insect itself in its 

 Ehone Valley haunts, seem to me to make it the more necessary 

 to deal with the matter in some detail. The insect was first 

 described by Riihl in the * Societas Entomologica,' v. p. 149, 

 under the name berisalii, as a variety of athalia (!). His descrip- 

 tion reads as follows ; '* Alis anterioribus porrectis, alarum 

 posticarum margine late diffuso, fere toto nigro, maculis lunatis 

 in linea circum currente vix apertis ; alis anticis subtus multis 

 maculis nigris magnisque ; alis posticis subtus margine lunato 



