THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELIT@MA. 99 
An aberrational form of this spécies was described and 
figured in the ‘Bulletin de la Société Lépidoptérologique de 
Genéve,’ vol. i. pt. iii. p. 262, pl. 8, fig. 5 (1908), under the 
name of ab. alba, Rehfous. It is described as follows: ‘‘la 
couleur du fond, normalement fauve, est remplacée par du blanc 
pur. Sur le dessus des ailes il ne reste pas la moindre parcelle 
de la couleur normale; les dessins foneés n’entourent que du 
blanc. Dessous, de legéres traces de fauve se retrouvent sur 
les nervures et de chaque coté des lignes noires.”* This appears 
to be a singularly perfect form of albino, for the colouring matter 
is absent not only from the ordinary fulvous scales but from 
the feathery portion at the base of the wings, from the fringes, 
and to a great extent from the palpi and legs. This example 
was taken at Iselle on the south side of the Simplon on July 14th, 
1907, and in the same paper another similar specimen is men- 
tioned as having been taken near Geneva on July 13th, 1904. 
With regard to the species to which these aberrations are 
referred, the dates would seem to leave no doubt as to the 
correctness of the diagnosis, even if the illustration of M. 
Rehfous’s specimen were not in itself conclusive. In a footnote 
it is added that the name is intended to serve as a concise 
description, and to apply not only to the species to which these 
particular examples belong but to similar aberrations of other 
species; M. dictynna, M. didyma, Argynnis (Brenthis) selene, 
and A. (Issoria) lathonia are specially mentioned. It will indeed 
be an advantage if this extended definition be accepted and 
adhered to more completely than has been done in the similar 
but far more extended case of the Lycenid aberrational forms 
dealt with by Courvoisier in the ‘ Bulletin de la Société Entomo- 
logique Suisse,’ vol. xi., pt. i, pp. 18-25, pl. ii. (1903), where 
general names applicable to all the usual forms of aberration 
common to several species were suggested. Some of these were 
no doubt barred in certain cases by the ‘law of priority,” but 
in all others these names ought certainly to have been accepted, 
even if this be not a case (as I most strongly hold it to be) where 
this apparently iren law of priority should have been made to 
bend. Surely it is not now outside the range of practical 
polities to press for the formation of an international council 
by which all such questions should be definitely decided? There 
are, of course, certain obvious difficulties in the way, and in 
making the attempt, others, unforeseen, would probably come 
to light, but none appear to be of such a character as to be 
necessarily insurmountable, and the result in clearness of 
meaning, in saving of time and labour, and in turning valuable 
* The ground colour, normally fulvous, is replaced by pure white; on 
the upper side of the wings there does not remain the slightest particle of 
the normal colour, the dark design surrounds nothing but white. Beneath, 
slight traces of the fulvous again appear on the nervures, and at each side 
of the black lines. 
