252 Pysche [December 
ARGYNNIS CYBELE FABR. FORMA BARTSCHI F. NOV. 
By WiuuiaMm Retrr.! 
Last spring while I was examining the collection of Lepidoptera 
belonging to Mr. Rudolf C. B. Bartsch of West Roxbury, Mass., 
we were talking on the always interesting theme of the variability 
of butterflies. Mr. Bartsch told me on this occasion that he pos- 
sessed a very peculiar but much damaged Argynnis, which he had 
captured in West Roxbury, Mass., during the first week of July, 
1907, together with two other specimens of the same kind. This 
specimen being in the best condition of all, he had kept but did not 
save the two other individuals as they were practically ruined. 
This specimen had the wings partially spread and on account of 
its injured condition Mr. Bartsch had placed it in a box by itself 
and laid it aside. He gladly fulfilled my very natural desire to see 
the interesting butterfly, and upon opening the box I was surprised 
to see a splendid Argynnis, which unfortunately had the wings seri- 
ously damaged and the body badly eaten by Dermestes. It was 
an Argynnis form which I had never seen before, neither in 
nature nor produced by artificial means. The specimen, a male, 
belongs without doubt to the cybele type. Against this identifi- 
cation the only argument would be the narrow, nearly faded light 
yellow band upon the under side of the hind wings, which is very 
broad in cybele. If we lay stress on this character, we might be 
led to suppose that we had a form before us belonging to the 
type alcestis Edwards. But this is impossible, since alcestis is an 
exclusively western subspecies. The eastern form aphrodite Fabr., 
which runs parallel with alcestis cannot be considered in this con- 
nection, since in aphrodite not only is the base of the underside 
of the fore wings always very red but the other colors have little 
conformity with those of cybele. There have not been seen, 
according to my knowledge, any specimens of aphrodite in West 
Roxbury and vicinity. Moreover, the place in which the aberra- 
tion was taken is an isolated swampy meadow, almost entirely 
1 Contributions from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Institution, Harvard 
University, No. 33. 
