NOTES ON BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 87 
by Duponchel in Melanippe, only four are British, and to these 
Stainton, Doubleday, &c., have added five others, viz., procellata, 
montanata, galiata, fluctuata, and unangulata. The last-named 
was only enumerated by Duponchel in the appendix to his 
catalogue, where it is placed in Stephens’s genus Harpalyce, but 
the other four were included by him in his genus Melanthia, 
together with albicilata, adustata, rubiginata, ocellata, and 
blandidata. 
The nine species now placed in the genus Melanippe of our 
lists have certain superficial characters in common, which 
permit of their being grouped together, and the sequence of 
arrangement originated by others and adopted by me in the 
‘Entomologist Synonymic List’ appears to be a natural one. 
If, however, we examine the structure of the respective species, 
we shall find that the group is not homogeneous. The males of 
montanata and fluctuata have pectinated antenne, and these 
species agree in this respect with those we include in the 
genus Coremia; they would, however, be aberrant members 
of that group, as they certainly are of Melanippe. Procellata 
seems to be out of place, and galiata does not agree with either 
montanata or fluctuata. It is not my purpose, however, to discuss 
the generic affinities of the species, but to refer to their variation, 
&¢., which I will now proceed to do. 
MELANIPPE HASTATA. 
The ground colour is generally pure white, but sometimes 
cream-coloured ; it is, however, in the central and basal black 
markings of this species that we find the greatest amount of 
variation. 
In the more or less typical form the basal fourth of fore 
wing is usually black, and equally divided in two sections by a 
white band or line; both portions are often marked with white, 
and in some cases the outer one is broken up by white longi- 
tudinal streaks. The central band is sometimes continuous 
from costa to inner margin, with a transverse whitish dash below 
the middle ; in other specimens the costal and inner portions of 
the band are alone present, and these are much broken by white 
markings. The white ground colour beyond the central band is 
sometimes intersected by a line of black spots. The hind wings 
have the basal third black, and this is, according to the character 
of the central band on fore wings, either much broken up by 
white markings, or simply divided into two parts by a transverse 
white line; the portion nearest the base with a white streak. 
The black outer marginal border of all the wings is often broad, 
almost completely divided in the middle by an arrow-shaped 
projection of the ground colour, and traversed by a white sub- 
marginal line, which, however, is rarely complete, but generally 
