200 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



pamphlet with regard to the name berisalii given by Eiihl. This 

 termination should of course refer to a person not to a place, 

 and the Chanoine's Latinity being shocked by this, he used the 

 correct form herisalensis, by which name it is almost universally 

 known. Possibly those who make a fetish of priority will wish 

 to return to the original barbarism ; for myself I shall continue 

 to use the form I have always employed. Are the rigorists pre- 

 pared to return to *' schmidtiformis " ? I was not personally 

 acquainted with Schmidt ; still I hardly think that any butterfly 

 can have mimicked his shape. 



In order to compare the different species of the group with 

 one another, it is necessary to summarize the general charac- 

 teristics common to them all and to adopt a common terminology. 

 For this purpose the following may be considered as the normal 

 characters of the whole athalia- groui). 



Ground colour fulvous or orange-brown with black nervures 

 and other markings. A comparison with the Argynnids and 

 Brenthids, not to mention the didyma-gronp and such species as 

 parthenie and deione, shows the fallacy of regarding the black part 

 as the ground colour ; indeed, dictynna is the only species that 

 gives any excuse for this basis of description employed by some 

 of the early entomologists, and unfortunately adopted by Kirby. 

 This was pointed out long ago by Assmann in the Breslau ' Zeit- 

 schrift fiir Entomologie,' vol. i. p. 2 (1847). Fore wing, upper 

 side. Black border. Two black lines of varying width and con- 

 spicuousness, nearly parallel to the border; these we will call the 

 " outer and inner subterminal lines." Between the border and the 

 outer subterminal line, the ground colour shows more or less in 

 the form of lunules, the third of which, counting upwards from 

 the anal angle, projects further towards the disc of the wing than 

 the others, conspicuously so except in the case of partlienie, where 

 this character is slightly marked, and of raria and asteria, where 

 it rarely exists at all ; the direction and curve of the inner sub- 

 terminal line is a somewhat valuable character in determining the 

 different species. Further towards the base is a sharply elbowed, 

 almost sickle-shaped black line of very variable breadth, curving 

 sharply out from the costa towards the outer margin, then 

 inwards towards the base, and again somewhat outwards, 

 spreading out and often dividing towards the inner margin ; this 

 we will refer to as the " elbowed line," and to the spread-out 

 portion as the ^^ marginal blotch." Beyond the elbowed line, 

 nearer to the base, and starting from the first nervure below the 

 costa, is a black spot, normally only outlined and filled in with 

 the ground colour; this we will call the "stigma"; this fre- 

 quently joins the elbowed line at its last bend, in such a way as 

 to make it appear to form one line with the lower part of the 

 elbowed line. Still nearer to the base are two narrow black 

 lines, the " basal lines" slightly inclining outwards from the 



