196 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Epipliron, because it is the fullest, and marshals in detail tlie 

 variation of the species as known to James Francis Stephens. 



The annals of French entomology are exceptionally rich at 

 this epoch : Godart, Duponchel and Boisduval are all at work 

 upon native Lepidopteia, and the indefatigable collectors of 

 Provence, the Comte de Saporta and Donzel, are providing 

 material for the description of many butterflies hitherto- 

 unknown to the writers on this side of the Ehine. Godart 

 and Duponchel, however, accept the original proposition of the 

 German writers, and describe Epipliron and Cassiope as separate 

 species (Diurnes, vol. ii, pi. xvi, figs. 3, 4). Of the former they 

 write : 



" Ailes entieres, d'un brun noir, avec une bande ferrugineuse,. 

 maculaire : bande des superieures offrant sur chaque face 2 a 4 

 points noir, pupilles de blanc ; bande des inferieures avec 3 a 5 en 

 dessous. . . ." 



Again the sexes are not differentiated, and it is permissible 

 to suppose that once more it is a case of the authors merely 

 quoting Enoch's original description. For, when we turn to the 

 plate on which the male and the female are presented, we find 

 an insect about twice the size of Epiphro)i, all four wings 

 studded in the band with silvery white spots in both sexes. 

 But this butterfly is certainly Ceto — a view which we shall 

 presently see Boisduval holds, though Godart comes forward 

 with the information that his Epiphron occurs in the Vosges^ 

 where Ceto has never been known. 



" Ses ailes sent d'un brun noiratre-chatoyant, et elles ont de part 

 et de Tautre une bande ferrugineuse, plus ou moins longue legere- 

 ment divisee aux superieures, maculaire aux secondes. La bande des 

 premieres ailes offre de deux a quatre yeux noirs a prunella blanche. 

 La bande des secondes ailes en a orclinairement trois en dessus, et de- 

 trois a cinq en dessous. Des Vosges." 



Apparently at this time (' Hist. Nat. des Lepidopteres,' 1822) 

 the existence of Cassiope in this region is unsuspected. "II se 

 trouve au mois de juin, dans les montaignes du Languedoc, et 

 dans les Pyrenees-Orientales." 



The description of Cassiope tallies closely with that of 

 Fabricius : 



" Ailes entieres, d'un brun noir : les superieures avant de part et. 

 de I'autre une bande ferrugineuse, avec trois a cinq points noirs :: 

 dessous des inferieures plus pale vers I'extremefce, avec pareil nombre 

 des petits points a iris rougeatre. Dessus des ailes inferieures avec 

 trois a quatre taches ferrugineuses, marquees chacune d'un point, 

 noir. Dessous des memes ailes d'un brun clair dans la femelle." 



Alexis Noel's work, published at Paris in 1830 under the title, 

 ' Collection Entomologique ou Histoire Naturelle des Insectes,' 

 consists entirely of plates, which are nothing remarkable in their 



