JUL1G1920 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. LIII.] JULY, 1920. [No. 686 



EEEBIA EPIPHRON, ENOCH: ITS SYNONYMY AND 



FORMS. 



By H. Rowland-Brown, M.A., F.E.S. 



This study of Erebia epiphron was commenced in 1914, and 

 it had been my intention to complete a monograph of this 

 species. The war intervened when Part I only was finished, 

 and since August, 1914, I have been unable to proceed further. 

 I had hoped, also, to present with Part II at least one or two 

 coloured plates illustrating unfigured forms, but I fear now that, 

 •owing to the cost of production, the scheme must be abandoned, 

 though I adhere faithfully to M. Oberthiir's formula that verbal 

 •descriptions (especially where local and aberrant forms are 

 concerned) should be accompanied by accurate plates, whether 

 coloured or from photographs. 



Part I. — Synonymy. 



Some little time ago I published in the * Entomologist ' 

 (vol. xlv, 1912, pp. 334-336), a few remarks suggested by a 

 question raised by M. Charles Oberthiir in his " Lepidopt6rologie 

 Comparee " (fasc. iii, pp. 284-288) as to the actual species or 

 forms of one species intended by Enoch and Fabricius in their 

 descriptions of Erehia epiphron and E. cassiope. The confused and 

 baffling nomenclature of the writers who followed them has 

 provided entomologists with a number of synonymic and specific 

 puzzles, among which the relative values of Epiphron and Cassiope 

 may be reckoned not the least difficult of solution. But whereas 

 systematists have painfully unravelled the synonymy of other 

 lenidopterous insects, I do not think that the classification of 

 what I will call the Epiphron form collectively has been 

 •established until quite recently on a complete and satisfactory 

 basis. In this paper, therefore, I shall do my best to determine 

 from the evidence of the authors who have written upon this 

 Erebia and its nearly associated allies — 



(i) On what grounds they regarded Epiphron and Cassiope 



as distinct species of the same genus, 

 (ii) To what extent one should be regarded as a variety of 



the other. 



ENTOM. — JULY, 1920. ' O 



