THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELIT^A. 79 



exactly reproduced in one specimen, and in another the black 

 lunules of the un. s. h. w. appear, whilst the contrast between 

 the two divisions of the central band on the same wing is much 

 slighter than usual. They are smaller and lighter than is usual 

 in Switzerland, and approach nearer to average English speci- 

 mens ; those, however, from the Saleve (Haute Savoie) are also 

 somewhat small and light. The only approach made by speci- 

 mens of athalia towsu'ds j^artJienie appears to me to consist in the 

 partial or entire absence of the extra line up. s. h. w., which 

 certainly gives a superficial resemblance to the latter species, 

 but I have never yet come across a specimen with this pecu- 

 liarity, in which the f. w. and the palpi did not at once suffice to 

 determine the species. There certainly does exist, however, 

 some confusion in the minds of various authors between these 

 two species, the climax of which seems to be reached in Giard's 

 paper in the ' Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes,' xxxiii. p. 44 

 (1905), on the Argynnides of Northern France, in which the 

 whole account of athalia obviously refers to parthcnie. and vice 

 versa, whilst the names are used with absolute correctness by 

 Dupont in his paper on p. 80 of the same volume on the 

 Argynnides of Normandy. Oberthiir's paper in the Ent. Eec. 

 XV. p. 313 really ought to dispose of any difficulty in separating 

 the species, in Northern France at any rate. An occasional 

 broadening of the black edging of the nervures in small speci- 

 mens occasionally produces some resemblance to aurelia, but 

 the lunules of the outer band in un. s. h. w., and often also the 

 shape of the wings, which as a rule are more elongated in the 

 latter species, will suffice to prevent mistakes. I have never 

 seen any near approach to dictynna on the part of athalia except 

 from Bukowina, though the converse occurs, and the same fact 

 may be stated with regard to hritomartis, though of course a 

 glance at the under side in either of these cases would at once 

 settle the question. I have already mentioned the resemblance 

 between athalia and dictynnoides in Bukowina ; the specimens 

 given under the latter name from the Ural in the National 

 Collection are, in my opinion, probably athalia a^^proaching even 

 more closely to dictynnoides, but in the absence of exact data 

 it is impossible to pronounce definitely on the subject. This 

 species never approaches either varia or asteria. 



The extent of variation in the bands of the ground colour on 

 the up. s. is sometimes very remarkable in the female. There 

 are in. the National Collection several specimens from Germany 

 with a distinctly pink tint in some of these bands ; in one from 

 the Elwes collection, taken at Kruznach, and another with no 

 distinctive label, this peculiarity is so pronounced as to remind 

 one of matiirna var. u-olfensbergeri. A similar specimen, in com- 

 pany with a fairly ordinary female, both coming from the Leech 

 collection, are labelled " hybr. Mel. Phoebe and Athalia " ! with- 



