MELITAEA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 429 



with darker on the nervules. The under surface of the ,^ a peculiar yellowish-grey, witli the veins clear 

 white, the terinen of both wings, as well as the basal area and, to a lesser extent also the median band, of 

 the hindwings dull chocolate-bi'own, more rarely somewhat deeper fuscous. In most ^^y the brownish median 

 band is almost obsolete, only the inner blackish edge remaining very distinct. The black markhigs as above, 

 only more faint. $: Under surface of the forewhigs, on the lundwmgs the basal area, a postmedian band 

 and the termen chocolate-red, the intervening parts of the hindwings pale fulvous ; the median row of spots 

 diffu.sely black. The head dirty brownish, in the $$ clothed with red-brown hair; palpi altove covered with 

 red-brown, beneath with yellowish-brown hair. Antennae above blackish, towards the l)aso whitish-grey, tlie 

 clubs short, spoon-shaped, brownish lieneath, blackish aljove. Thorax clothed with dusky greyish -gi"een hair, 

 abdomen dark above, dirty brownish-yellow underneath (Staudixc4ER). 



A. cora Lucas. One specimen (type.), taken by Gay in the (iordillera of Peru, in the Natural History cor 

 Museum at Paris. In size approaching tiie smallest specimens of inca (1,0"); the wings similarly fonned as 

 in this and inodesta; forewings elongate, pointed, oval, hindwings almost I'ound. Upper surface pale greyish- 

 brown with greenish tone, only the terminal portion suffused with cinnamon-brown; both wings have the 

 basal area pretty broadly obscured with fuscous; the markings faint and diffuse, formed in the inner half of 

 the forewings of isolated striae of pale blackish-brown; the postdiscal spots .small, pretty regular; the 

 submarginal spots oval, almo.st united to a band, the terminal lines barely visible. On the hindwings the 

 markings of the inner half ahnost obsolete, in the distal half as on the forewings, if anything even fainter 

 and more indistinct. The colour of the under surface brownish-buf f ; on the forewings the cell and discal 

 area delicately marked with l>rownisli; the apical area and the upper portion of the termen dark ferru- 

 ginous, cut up into broad arrow-shaped spots by the whitish veins. Also on the hindwings the pale ground 

 is in a most characteristic manner interrupted by more or less complete dentate nracular bands of dark 

 ferruginous made up of sharply sagittate spots which are deeply notched at the outer end and pointing towards 

 the base, separated by the veins which are, esjjecially hi the outer half, broadly white. The cell is almost 

 completely filled with them, only the apex and a small patch in the middle remaining white; toward the base 

 a number of similar spots. The median and postdiscal rows are, between the ujjper median and lower 

 radial, interrupted by streaks of the ground-colour, whereas the marginal band is complete. Fringe very 

 long, yellowish-white, on both sides marked with black on the nerves, the black spots united with the blackish 

 extremity of the veins. From near Ouzco (Guamanga), Peru. 



There remains to be added that there still are a few other forms of American Argynnis that have recei- 

 ved separate names, and which we regard as accidental colour-aberrations. Thus ^4. letis Wr. from the 

 Western United States, a form of A. leto (86 b), has the apex of the forewings and the entire outer hah of 

 the hindwings uniformly fulvous, without hardly any mai'khigs. — A.l(mra{87h) ah. Imirina Wr. lacks on 

 the under surface the silvery spots, being related to the main form somewhat as chodoxa is to ^. ndippe. 



3. Genus: Melitaea F. 



This genus is confined to the northern temperate regions of the Earth, being cj^uite ecpially distributed 

 over the Eastern and Western Hemisphere, each of which is inhabited by about 30 species. If in Vol. 1, I 

 have enumerated as many as 170 Palaearctic forms, that is ever s-o many more than are known from Ame- 

 rica, it is only due to the fact that in the Palaearctic species every Melanism and every variation of the 

 bauds gave rise to anew name; following this method, it would indeed be easy to equally increase the number 

 of American Melitaea forms. 



In structui'e the genus in some respects closely follows Argynnis, having, like this, the clubs of the 

 antennae flattened, slightly concave; but the j^alpi are not swollen, but instead densely clothed with tufts 

 of hair underneath, with the middle joint somewhat distented, still on the whole rather slender. Less im- 

 portant seems the venation; it is generally stated, that Argynnis has the cell of the hindwings always 

 closed, whereas Melitaea has it open; but a close examination will reveal also in many Melitaea traces of a 

 lower discocellular vein closing the cell. 



From the very similar group of Phyciodes s. s. Melitaea cannot be distinguished by any constant 

 characteristics, even the most painstaking anatomical examination or even their biology revealing such. 

 From Eresia, however, they deviate in that the species belonging to that genus probably without exception 

 are niimetic forms, cojjying Heliconids, Danaids or Acraeids, whereas not one species of Melitaea is known 

 to copy any other butterfly; even in Melitaea acraeina Stgr. which received its name from a most superficial 

 resemblance to an Acraea, Mimicry seems out of the cpiestion, as I have already shown in Vol. 1, p. 218. 



