342 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



but also as in ichnusa and as in urticce; and usually the icknusa- 

 form puncta are found in the female. 



The Grapta-siiecies also in their female forms show the puncta 

 mostly in the same position as in ichnusa. These species, with 

 their " four puncta," are of special interest, one puncta coin- 

 ciding with the " nota " of ichnusa-urtica, the fourth near the 

 costa reminding of the projection to the second costal blotch of 

 V. io, which helps to round off the ocellus in that species. I 

 have found this fourth spot to occur separately in urticce-dibei'- 

 rations. Polygonia-s-pecies show the puncta too near the 

 margin to be quite icJmusa-ioi'm, but the puncta are placed 

 in the same slanting position as in ichnusa, those in the many 

 forms of c-album approaching nearest to the corresponding 

 markings in Graj^to- species. The puncta of Eugonia polychloros, 

 of xanthomelas, and of L. album are quite w^ic^s-form ; only the 

 puncta in californica, together with the small inner marginal 

 spot, remind of the markings in ichnusa. The interesting 

 yellowish and black basal suffusion in ichnusa can be found 

 developed to a similar degree in L. album, and is also fairly well 

 marked in californica ; it is less conspicuous in normal poly- 

 chloros, and still less apparent in xanthomelas, in which species 

 it resembles more a darkening of the ground colour, and this is 

 also the case in the Graj^fa-species. The forms of Polygonia 

 usually exhibit a very clear basal area, but c-album is an excep- 

 tion, and occasionally shows the black and yellowish basal 

 suffusion very strongly. In A. levana the basal upper side parts 

 show up the under side markings — a yellowish ring, which is 

 black in the under side of V. urticce ; the general yellowish basal 

 suffusion is almost wanting, thus leaving the base black. This 

 black basal colouring, which is very variable in extent, turns up 

 also in aberrations of V. urticce (ab. basi-nigra). As regards the 

 marginal developments in the " tortoiseshell " Vanessids, most 

 of these also are suggested by the facies of A. levana and its 

 many forms. 



Thus the outer margin will be found to be dark, unmarked 

 (as in V. io, ichnusa female, xanthomelas), but with a white border 

 fringe in levana ; or usually the margin will be of the ground 

 colour, marked by a dark line, as in most forms ; or occasionally 

 almost wholly of the ground colour. The " lunules " either 

 appear as separate black spots or form a continuous black (or 

 brown) band — for instance, in species of Grapta (brown mark- 

 ings), Polygonia (brown, brown-black), Eugonia; or they are 

 marked by straight or irregular blue lines (only in the hind 

 wings as in other Araschnids, in normal E. polychloros, xantho- 

 melas) ; or they appear as well-defined blue lunules in both 

 wings (or only in the hind wings), as in urticce and many of its 

 local forms. By aberration, specimens of xanthomelas from 

 Asia (Amur, Tianschan) occur with yellowish grey outer mar- 



