110 Dr. F. A. Dixey on the ijhylogenetic 



females throughout the genus Argynnis (inchiding A. 

 sarjana and A. nij)he) ; in the males it is smaller, often 

 crescentic instead of triangular, and sometimes (as 

 in A. paphia ? ), apparently on the point of disappear- 

 ance. In Clothilda pantherata <? ? it is resolved into 

 a series of three (sometimes four) dark spots, con- 

 verging with III. 1 — 5 towards the middle point of 

 series III. (fig. 28). The same condition obtains in A. 

 diana ? , except that here the dark spots are less 

 sharply differentiated from the rest of the wing. 



We see accordingly that the dark space between C 

 and D in the genera Pyrameis and Vanessa forms part 

 of a series. This series occurs in its least modified and 

 most complete form in the genus Argynnis, where it 

 consists of a chain of dark spots, in their origin 

 undoubtedly, like series IV., survivals of the primitive 

 dark ground colour (see A. diana ?) extending the 

 whole way across the wing nearly parallel to the hind 

 border, and giving off in the interspace between the 3rd 

 median and 2nd discoidal nervules an interior branch 

 which reaches the costa separately (fig. 31, III., III'.). 



In the genera Pyrameis, Vanessa and Grapta, the 

 spots posterior to the point of bifurcation have generally 

 disappeared, while the two branches III', and III. are 

 usually fused together with more or less admixture of 

 the light ground colour* (figs. 1, 2, 3). 



The question may suggest itself whether the two small 

 black spots near the middle of the fore wing in V. 

 nrticce (fig. 32, II. 6, 7) do not represent two terms of 

 this series. They are clearly identical with the two 

 larger spots in the similar situation in V. polychloros 

 (fig. 33), and these again with spots constantly present 

 in the genus Grapta. 



If we examine the fore wing of a specimen of V. 



■'- Before leaving the subject of series III. with its offshoot III'., 

 we may notice that the first one or two members of III. show a 

 strong tendency to approach and becoine fused witli the corres- 

 ponding members of IV. (clearly seen in figs. 4, 31). The 

 interval between the fore part of III', and III. thus becomes better 

 marked than that between III. and IV., and it is this interval that 

 gives rise to a in series D, which thus constitutes an exception to 

 the general relations of its series. This is most clearly shown by 

 A. nerippe, in which a is conspicuously picked oiit in white on the 

 usual tawny ground colour of an ordinary Argynnis, and is well 

 seen to belong to the interval between III', and III. 



