n8 LEPIDOPTERA. 



slightly recurved bluut point. Head, thorax, and abdomen 

 velvety black, shaggy with long dense soft hairs. Fore- 

 wings elongated, rather narrow at the base ; costal and 

 dorsal margins nearly straight, apex rounded, hind margin 

 slightly rounded and oblique. Thinly scaled and somewhat 

 diaphanous ; pale shining slate-gi-ey, with the nervures 

 slightly darker, and with three narrow longitudinal streaks 

 or blotches of pale scarlet, one along the basal third of the 

 costa, another from the base to beyond the middle but 

 nearer to the dorsal margin, and the third arising between 

 them like a wedge, but, extending considerably towards the 

 apex, throws off a broad extension toward the anal angle. 

 These three blotches are separated by the dark nervures. 

 Cilia shining, pale gray. Hind wings rather short with 

 rounded apex and hind margin ; very pale scarlet with an 

 extremely narrow dark grey stripe round the hind margin ; 

 cilia pale grey. Female similar, except that the fore wings 

 are paler and more transparent, the antenuie rather more 

 slender, and the body less hairy. Underside similar to the 

 upper, except that the nervures are not dark, and the 

 elongate markings on the fore wings appear as one large 

 irregular blotch ; body and legs black. 



Usually not variable, but Dr. Mason possesses a specimen 

 in which the red elongated blotches are lighter in colour than 

 usual, but the entire fore wings, except the nervures, are 

 suffused with the same colour, and the hind wings have a 

 rather broad marginal grey stripe. Occasionally the dark 

 colour of the dividing nervures is so spread out that the red 

 blotches are separated in a sensible degree, the sharp wedge- 

 point of the middle one being shortened, so that the latter 

 seems to lie further from the base than usual. This variation 

 was at one time introduced to our lists as a distinct species, 

 under the name of Achillccc^ but was very soon ascertained to 

 be rather the tyi:)ical form of the present species in Switzerland. 

 It was also found that our more frequent type had received the 

 name of nubvjcna. Minos and nuhiijena were then placed as 



