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XII. A Revision of the Genus Erebia. By HENry JOHN 
ELWEs, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 
[Read February 16th, 1898.] 
Ir is now nine years since I published some notes on this 
genus in the Transactions of this Society, 1889, p. 317, 
and gave a synopsis of the species then known to me. 
My attention was last year again strongly attracted to 
the genus by a paper by Herr H. Calberla (Iris, ix, 
p. 377) on LHrebia glacialis and £. melas, in which he 
proved by a comparison of the genitalia of the male 
insects that the form which had been taken at Campiglio 
in South Tyrol by Mrs. Nicholl, myself and others, and 
which I had considered to be the missing geographical 
link uniting £. melas of Hungary with its supposed 
Pyrenean form £. lefebvrei was nothing more than a 
strongly-marked local variety of #. glacialis, which occurs 
.ags a rare aberration in some other places. I at once 
asked Mr. Edwards to employ his leisure in the dissection 
and examination of the genitalia of the other species of 
the genus, from which I expected that much help might 
be derived in the classification of what has always been a 
difficult genus, on account of its wide diffusion and great 
tendency to vary; and finding later that Dr. Chapman 
was working at the same subject, I placed Mr. Edwards’s 
dissections at his disposal. 
The result of their work has in some cases confirmed 
and in others modified the views which I previously held 
as to the specific value of characters, which are in some 
cases extremely variable; but as my knowledge of the 
genus has increased, I am rarely unable to name the most 
aberrant specimens without baving recourse to the form 
of the clasps which, as Dr. Chapman’s investigations show, 
are in most cases a certain guide to the identification of 
species, if sufficient study be given to them. 
That this genus is one in which no one should be too 
confident about specific affinities without some other guide 
than colour and markings is well shown by the mistake I 
made about £. glacialis, and by an even more remarkable 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1898.—PARTII (JUNE.) 12 
