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THK KNIOMOLOQIST. 



XXV. p. 300, &c.) once more enumerates Ilicis and var. yEsculi 

 among his captures at Eclepens. For the henefit, then, of those 

 who, following the text-books of Kane, Wheeler, and others, have 

 hitherto arranged these butterflies in their collections under the 

 same label, I venture to offer a few remarks intended to help 

 them to distinguish Msculi as well in the museum as in the field. 

 Of the earlier lepidopterists, Hiibner, who is responsible for 

 the nomenclature, Ochsenheimer, and Godart all give Msculi 

 specific rank. Boisduval, in his ' Index Methodicus ' (1829), 

 classifies thus : 



" iEsculi, H., Och., God. (vix a seq. diff.) . . . Gall. mer. . . . 



Junii "; 

 thus indicating his belief in the species, though scarcely differing 

 from the following, which is 

 "Lynceus, F., God. . . . Europ. . . . Junii. 

 IHcis, H., Och." 



Twenty-four years later, Gerhard, also, figuring the genus, 

 maintains this separate identity, and is followed by Segond 

 ('Cat. des Papillons du Var.,' 1853), Bellier de la Cliavignerie 

 (" Lepids. des Pyr.-Or.," 'Ann. Ent. Soc. France,' 1857), and 

 de Graslin ("Lepids. des Pyr.-Or., loc. cit. 1862), all of whom I 

 cite as having had personal knowledge of the butterfly in its 

 native haunts. Then, about 1863, M. Oberthiir tells us CL6pid. 

 Compar6e,' fasc. iv. pp. 75-79) Guenee attached to the box, now 

 in his possession, containing examples taken in the Eastern 

 Pyrenees, the following screed, written in his exquisite and 

 microscopic handwriting : — 



" Thecla Msculi, Hb., 559, 560; Och.; God., Enc, p. 649; 

 De V. et Gn., p. 40 — taken by me at le Vernet in 1859 ; June 

 and July. Can it be believed that this species, so distinct, is 

 not accepted by the German authors, even the most modern, 

 who insist upon regarding it as a variety of Lynceus {Ilicis) ! It 

 is as common at Moutpellier as Lynceus {Ilicis) with us, and the 

 latter occurs there also, and never mixes with it. Further, the 

 var. Cerri, to which almost all the examples from the Midi 

 belong, is exaggerated in the contrary direction to Msculi. The 

 general appearance, the entire absence of the tawny blotches in 

 both sexes, the shape of the white line of the hind wings and of 

 their tawny lunules, the absence of the terminal border, the club 

 of the antennae, &c., should leave no doubt of the specific validity. 

 The larva feeds on ilex {yeiise), and closely resembles that of 

 Lynceus {Ilicis). I bred No. 4 ; the pupa-case is beside it." 



M. Oberthiir then proceeds to examine the three hundred and 

 seventy-four Msculi in his collection from S. France, S. Spain, 

 and Algeria. Both sexes, he says, are uniform dark brown on 

 the upper side, but occasionally the female shows a trace of 

 tawny on the fore wings above, and several spots of the same 



