﻿204 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the fact when showing me his collection, I, too, had not examined 

 my Digne and Vernet yEsculi with sufficient care to realize that 

 they were in effect other than a form of Ilicis. Nor am I the 

 only collector, it appears, who, having come across the two 

 species, or Mscidi alone, accepted the lead of Staudiuger, despite 

 the obvious fact that his acquaintance with most of the more 

 local French species is slight, and usually secondhand. j\tr. 

 F. Bromilow ('Entomologist,' vol. xxvi. p. 348) ranks the species 

 as a variety, "first seen on June 30th-" at Nice ; Mr. F. Norris 

 {loc. cit., vol. XXV. p. 240), in the same way, at Certosa di Pesio, 

 **not at all rare." But, as might be expected of so experienced 

 a lepidopterist as the Eev. F. E. Lowe, he expresses a decided 

 doubt as to the specific identity of the two butterflies in Spain. 

 Collecting at La Granja, near Madrid, he writes ('Ent. Record,' 

 xxi. 1909) : " Flying with the usual form were some very small 

 N. ilicis of var. (esculi quite dwarfs (I have the same from 

 Eclepens). It seems difficult to believe that this is really 

 N. ilicis''' (p. 63); and again "iV. ilicis and vars. cerri and 

 cesculi, very abundant, partial to acacia trees ; is it possible that 

 it even lays its eggs on them?" (p. 65). Mr. A. H. Jones also 

 mentions "var. cesctdi, worn specimens at Grenada, beginning 

 of May" {loc. cit. xxiii. p. 297). At an earlier date still Mr. 

 W. E. Nicholson speaks of " this form, with T.j^rimi at Budafok," 

 near Budapest. Even so punctilious an authority as Mr. G. T. 

 Bethune-Baker retains /Esculi as a local form of Ilicis, I believe, 

 and it is because of this view esjoecially that I have gone into the 

 matter at so much length. 



To revert to Godarfc (' Hist. Nat. Pap. France,' t. ii. pp. 162- 

 163), we find the superficial differences of the two butterflies 

 succinctly stated. .Esculi is his Papillon du Marronier, and he 

 records it in the garrigues of the Midi in springtime and in 

 summer ; though this must mean that it occurs in June and 

 July, as it seems to be a single-brooded species in common with 

 the other members of the genus. In such localities, he adds, it 

 is always smaller than Ilicis ; the under side of a less dark 

 brown, or approaching to grey (I should call it cinnamon) ; the 

 ante-marginal spots of the hind wings are more vivid in colour 

 (red- orange, rather than yellow, as in Ilicis), smaller, and 

 consequently further separated from one another. But the 

 difference is even more apparent in the shape of the inner line 

 of white spots on the under side, which are not, as a rule, as in 

 Ilicis, continued even faintly on the fore wings. Godart rightly 

 describes the spot which touches the inner margin toward the 

 anal angle as in the shape of a reversed C, or crescent, and the 

 next one to it as almost upright (droit), while in Ilicis the first 

 spot is V, or chevron-shaped, and very clearly so. "AVhat leads 

 me further to suppose that the Pobjommatus of the chestnut is 

 not merely a local variety of Lynceus {Ilicis), is that the latter 



