134 Mr. H. J. Elwes on the 



generation of naturalists will prove that what we even now 

 accept as specific diflferences are not founded on fact, and 

 that climate, food, and conditions of life will more than 

 account for the changes in tint we see of the representative 

 forms such as C. Aurora, Esp., from Eastern Siberia ; G. 

 Thisoa, from N. Persia ; and G. Heda, from Lapland ; 

 whilst insects of different broods in the same region have, no 

 doubt, as in other cases, been mistaken for different species. 



Menetries, in the Emmieratio Corporum Animalium, p. 

 77, attempts to show that the nearly allied species of Colias 

 may be recognised by the shape of the inner edge of the 

 band on the forewing in the males (he gives on plate 1 cuts 

 of the typical shape of this in one species) ; but after com- 

 paring his figures with specimens, and examining this 

 character in a number of examples of one species, I am 

 quite unable to follow out his theory. 



Menetries says that he thinks too much importance has 

 been attached to the shades of orange in different species, 

 and to the violet reflections on them ; but this is, after all, 

 the only means by which several of the nearly-allied forms, 

 such as electra, or aurorina, can be recognised in the male 

 sex, and though varying in intensity, as we see in C. Edusa 

 and G. Heda, it is in fresh specimens from the same locality 

 usually constant. 



In most, if not in all, of the first group we find a pale 

 form of the female, analogous to the variety of edusa named 

 Jielice, but I am not aware of any similar aberration in the 

 male sex. 



Hybrids seem to occur between some of the species, and 

 add considerably to the difficulty of recognising them. Cf. 

 Moschler Wien. Ent. Monats., iv. p. 22, and Edwards' 

 Butt. North America, ser. 2. pt, v., where a hybrid between 

 Philodice and Felidne is suggested. Ilerr Werneberg, 

 in Stettiner Ent. Zeit, 1865, p. 272, gives a revision of 

 the European species of the genus, which he treats in a 

 very different spirit from the majority of those who have 

 studied it, and reduces those included in Staudinger's list 

 to the following species : Group 1st, having the border 

 of the forewing spotted in both sexes. 



Hydle, L. 



var. Phicomone, Esp. 

 var. Nastes, Boisd. 

 var. Rossi, Guenee. 

 var. Mellnos, Eversm. 



