EREBIA EPIPHRON, KNOCH. 149 



europaischen Schmetterlinge,' published at Halle in the same 

 year as the * Mantissa ' by D. H. Schneider, author of the 

 * Nomenclator Entomologicus ' (Stralsund. 1785), a similar 

 doubt is expressed with regard to the white-pupilled female. 

 Under the title "Papilio Melampus " (pp. 110-111) Schneider 

 refers to Esper's tab. 78, fig. 2, to Knoch's ' Beitrage,' iii, tab. 

 6, iig. 7, and to Engramelle's ' Papillons d'Europe/ the foot- 

 note (89) with the text making it evident that he regarded 

 EpipJu'on, Melampus, and perhaps Cassiope as of one and the 

 same species, and the white-pupilled form of the female of 

 Knoch's figuration as peculiar to that sex. 



" There Herr Knoch not only says that in this butterfly the 

 number of the eye-spots is very variable, but states that the white 

 pupils are often present, and Herr Esper had but a single example. 

 I maintain, therefore, that this butterfly found on the Brocken, and 

 also generally in the mountain regions, is no more than a variety or 

 the female form of our Melampus." 



From this it would seem as if Schneider also was un- 

 acquainted at first hand with the female of either of the three 

 Erehias under consideration ; for, a little further on (p. Ill), 

 commenting on the figures in the ' Papillons d'Europe,' he says, 

 " ist hier eine voUige Binde mit verblischen Augen gezeichnet, 

 die sich an sammtlichen Exemplaren des Hrn. Esper nicht 

 gefunden haben. Vielleicht eine Eigenschaft des Weibchens ? " 

 "Here there is a complete band marked with obsolescent eyes, 

 which we have not found in Esper's kindred examples. Perhaps 

 it is a peculiarity of the female." 



A year later, again, Borkhausen is describing the type 

 (' Naturgeschichte Eur. Schmett.,' th. i, p. 77, No. 16, 1788) as 

 Papilio egea in what appears to be a mere transcript of Knoch's 

 description. But the following year {loc. cit., th. ii, p. 202) he 

 has evidently discovered that the white-pupilled ocellations are 

 a female character, though, strangely enough, he proceeds to 

 identify Knoch's Epiphron (which he re-christens Papilio alcyone) 

 with Fuessly's Melampus on this ground, and is content to repeat 

 in substance Fabricius's account of Cassiope as follows : 



" All wings above black-brown with an orange band, which on 

 the fore wings is undivided and does not reach the margins, but 

 which on the hind wings consists of separate blotches and has three 

 black points. On the underside the fore wings are marked as above ; 

 the hind wings lack the orange band, but the three black bands are 

 present."* 



Why Borkhausen in both cases should have re-named the 

 species is a mystery, the more difficult to comprehend in view 

 of the obvious fact that he had access to both Knoch's and 



* Transcribed from " Erehia epiphron and its Named Varieties," by Fras. J. 

 Buckell, M.B., ' Entomologist's Eecord/ 1894, vol. v, p. 163. 



