the genus Erchia. 321 



the Catalogue of Erebias in the British Museum, but I 

 may say generally that it appears to illustrate a general 

 desire to find specimens to fit names rather than to 

 appl,y names to sj^ecies ; and in several instances where 

 Staudinger and others have named varieties with more 

 or less justice as varieties only, Butler has adopted the 

 name as specific without indicating that the author of 

 the name did not so consider it. This, of course, is a 

 matter of opinion only, which is not of vital importance, 

 but it is as well that a name given by an author should 

 not be adopted in a diflerent sense to that intended by 

 him, or one may be led to suppose that such names as 

 sudetica, Stgr., pyrrhula, Frey., iwlaris, Stgr., uralensis, 

 Stgr., were used specifically by their authors, when it is 

 really Mr, Butler who has so applied them. 



In classifying the species of Erehia I am unable to 

 follow Von Gumppenberg, who divides the genus into 

 groups b}^ the under side of the hind wing, especially in 

 the female sex. The colour and banding of this wing is 

 no doubt of much more value in determining the species 

 than the colour or form of the bands or ocelli on the 

 upper side, but it leads to the grouping of species which 

 are otherwise but little related. 



I think that the number of ocelli is of little account 

 as a specific character, for in almost all species we 

 find great variation in the number and size, but 

 rarely in the position of the ocelli. The colour of 

 the disk of the fore wing, especially on the under side, 

 seems to be a more constant and useful character than 

 any other, and often enables one to identify species when 

 other characters vary. 



There are no doubt some more or less natural groups 

 within the genus, which I have tried to indicate by the 

 sequence of the species ; but none of them, I think, are 

 as yet shown to be capable of such exact definition as 

 would allow the formation of subgenera. 



Butler has adopted as a separate genus Orcina of West- 

 wood, including in it such little-allied species as theano, 

 tiielam'pus, glaeialis, and others, though I can see no 

 reason for so doing. He also uses the generic name 

 Maniola, Schrank. (which by Kirby is adopted for the 

 whole of what I call Erehia), for some species which 

 seem to have little affinity for each other, and, as far as 

 I know, without indicating what he considers typical of 



