170 Mr. H. J. Elwes’s 
slip which Dr. Staudinger recently made, in describing 
and figuring as a new variety of Hrebia nerine what he 
afterwards admitted to be nothing more than an ordinary 
LE. pronoe. Therefore, though I have done my best to form 
a correct judgment from all accessible sources of informa- 
tion, it is probable I have not even now placed in their 
correct order some of the least known species of Hrebia. 
My thanks are due to many entomologists for the assist- 
ance they have given me in lending rare species of Hrebia 
from their collections, especially to the Grand Duke 
Nicholas Mikhailovitch and his most obliging assistant M. 
Serge Alphéraky, who have added many rare Siberian 
species to my collection and lent many others for exami- 
nation; to Prof. Aurivillius of Stockholm, who lent me 
some types from the Stockholm Museum; to Dr. Staud- 
inger, to M. Charles Oberthiir, to Dr. Chapman, Messrs. 
Leech, Tutt, Nicholson and others. J am sure that ento- 
mologists will also thank Sir W. Flower of the British 
Museum as heartily as I do for allowing the national 
collection of this genus, which had remained much as I 
found it nine years ago, to be properly arranged under the 
names which I have adopted in this paper, and though it 
is still wanting in a few of the rarer Asiatic species, yet 
by the incorporation of the Frey and Godman-Salvin 
collections it now contains a very good series of nearly 
all the European species. 
The variation in the majority of the species of this genus 
is so great, that in many cases it is very difficult and in 
others impossible to draw up descriptions or analytical 
tables which will enable a person who has not a good 
knowledge of them to identify them. Staudinger remarks 
in his paper on the Lepidoptera of Greece as follows :— 
“When we consider how exceptionally great are the 
variations of the genus Hrebia both as regards the presence 
or absence of the ocelli, the red bands or spots, the darker 
or lighter underside, &c., not only as local variations, but 
also as aberrations, we find a very rich material in proof 
of the Darwinian theory ; and the more material we receive, 
so much more uncertain we are about the specific distine- 
tion of many forms which we now look on as good 
species.” 
This is as true now as when it was written nearly thirty 
years ago, so it has therefore been a great advantage to have 
the additional test of the genitalia to apply before attempt- 
ST = Sa 
