THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
Vou. LIV.) NOVEMBER, N21. —— [Na Joa 
= SS ee 
A NEW ABERRATION OF ARICIA ASTRARCHE. 
By Winuram Carrrr. 
On July 16th of this year, the occasion of an excursion of 
the Natural History Society of Northumberland and Durham to 
Blackhall Rocks, I was fortunate enough to capture a beautiful 
form of the Brown Argus in the same restricted locality as has 
produced so persistently the form vedre, Harr. Dr. J. W. H. 
Harrison, who has described so many varieties of this insect 
(see Tutt, vol. iv, pp. 244-7), has been good enough to help me 
in this case, and the following is our joint description : 
Aricia astrarche, ab. cuneata, nov. 
This form clearly belongs to the vedre-albicans group, but 
differs markedly from all. 
Above, the insect appertains in facies to the var. semi-allous, and 
thus calls for no comment. 
Below, the fore wings are ashen grey in the ground-colour, 
except that the area between the discoidal spot and the upper 
five of the subterminal row of red spots is intersected by five 
broad pearly-grey dashes. The red spots themselves are slightly 
moved inward, whilst the black spots preceding them are pro- 
sressively obsolescent as we pass from the anal angle to the 
costa. On the contrary the black spots usually following them 
are quite obsolete, but in compensation all the veins in that area 
are marked with a broad blackish bar. Similarly the terminal 
black line is broader than the normal. On the hind wings the 
sround-colour is a very slightly ochreous white, whilst the veins 
over the outward half of the wings are finely outlined in black 
brown; basally this outlining becomes diffused into the ground- 
colour to an extent just enough to show that the spot in the cell, 
although minus its pupil, has the same colour as the main 
ground-colour. The subterminal row of red spots has its indi- 
vidual members distinctly less than usual, but more concentrated 
in colour. Before it occur the usual black spots, but, as in the 
fore wings, those suceeding it are obsolete. Again, as in the 
fore wings, the veins in the area between the red spots and 
the fringes are heavily and broadly marked in blackish brown. 
ENTOM.—NOVEMBER, 1921. Y 
