﻿SOME REMAIiKS ON THECLA ^SCULI. 203 



shade along the marginal border of the hind wings. In Spain, 

 Algeria, and the Eastern Pyrenees there occurs with the type 

 the variety of which Hiibner figures the female with Nos, 690, 

 691. It is this .Esculi which is erroneously cited by Staudiuger 

 ( 'Catalog,' 1901) as a synonym of Cerri. In this variety {/Esculi, 

 Hb., female, 690-691) the inale is unicolorous above, but the 

 female is ornamented on the exfcra-cellularpart of the fore wings 

 with a broad tawny blotch, and along the border of the hind 

 wings with a very well-developed border formed of similar tawny 

 confluent spots. Gerhard figures this var. of JEsculi, and gives 

 to it the name Maculatus (pi. 4, fig. 4). " I do not know why 

 this var. Maculatus, Gerhard, is not recognized in the 'Catalog.'" 

 And, as far as the Mscidi of south-western Europe is concerned, 

 M. Oberthiir reclassifies them as follows ('Lepid. Comparee,' 

 fasc. iv. April, 1910, pp. 78-9) :— 



" 1. <? and ? practically unicolorous on upper side. 

 Esculi, Hb. . . . ( <? 559-560) . . . S. France. 

 .Esculi, Gerh. . . . (PI. 2 ; figs, la, Ih, Ic). Portugal. 

 "2. ^ unicolorous upper side, ? with tawny blotches on all 

 four wings upper side. 

 Maculatus, Gerh. . . . (PI. 4 ; $ , fig. 4) . . . Andalusia ; 



Collioure, Pvr.-Or. 

 Esculi, Hb. . . .'(? 690, 691). 



ab. Graslini, Obthr. ( <? Lep. Comp. iv. pi. xlix. 

 fig. 402). Sierra Nevada. 

 " 3. Unicolorous upper side ; deep blackish ; rather large ; 

 the red tawny spots very brilliant. 

 Ilicioides,(jevh.. . . . (PL 4; figs. 5a, 56, 5c) . . . Ronda." 



Meanwhile, the German authors, ignoring Gerhard, continue 

 to refer xEsculi to Ilicis, including Staudinger, and Eiihl, who 

 gives so clear an account of the superficial differences of his 

 type and so-called variety that it is surprising he did not suspect 

 the truth. And it is certainly as surprising to find that 

 M. Eondou follows their example (' Cat. Lepids. des Pyrenees, 

 Soc. Linn. Bordeaux,' t. Ivii. 1902). Even as recently as the 

 year before last Professor Courvoisier ('Internat. Ent. Zeitschrift,' 

 Guben, No. 36, p. 240, December 6th, 1913), in the course of a 

 long paper on the "Nomenclature and Diagnosis of the European 

 Theclids," repeats the error, Esculi {sic) still appearing under 

 Ilicis, though the several forms of it are correctly differentiated 

 from the forms of Ilicis, as (c) maculatus, Gerh. (vide supra), 

 (f?) mauretanicus, Stgr., and (e) aureonitens, Seitz, described as a 

 common form of the female Mauretanicus with a lustrous golden 

 upper side. 



M. Oberthiir, then, renders us real service by once more 

 calling attention to this long drawn-out tale of misrepresentation. 

 Before, and until I visited Rennes in 1909, and he emnhasised 



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