Zepidopkra of the Altai Moiintains. S35 



end of July, when the species was nearly over. In the 

 high Tchuja Mountains at 7000 — 8000 feet, I found a small 

 paler form, which is not exactly like anything in my col- 

 lection, though it perhaps comes nearest to the form which 

 Menetries called orientalis, of which I have several speci- 

 mens from Kamtschatka taken by Herz. This is certainly 

 distinguishable in the Altai from the valley form, which 

 comes nearest to what is called britomartis in Europe, 

 and has been so named by Grurn and Tancre, from both 

 of whom I received Altai specimens. Tiie difficulty, 

 however, of referring the Asiatic 3Ielit/eas of this group to 

 either of the three European supposed species which they 

 most resemble is almost insuperable, and the greater the 

 number of specimens that one receives from different 

 localities the greater the difficulty becomes. I have about 

 two hundred selected specimens of the various named forms 

 of athalia, aurelia, and parthenie from Europe ; and from 

 Asia I have about seventy which have been named as 

 follows : britomartis from the Altai valleys ; a small moun- 

 tain form which I call orientalis, Men., from the high 

 Altai mountains and Kamtschatka, and one sent by 

 Tancre as britomartis which resembles these ; a form 

 from N.-E. Siberia in Gram's collection named var. 

 sibirica, which appears to be a MS. name ; a larger and 

 much redder form from the Alatau Mountains taken by 

 Haberhauer, and from Kenderlik in the South Altai taken 

 by Ruckbeil, which Staudinger calls parthenie, var. ala- 

 tanica ; a form from the mountains near Samarcand 

 named parthenie, var. sidtanensis, by Staudinger, which is 

 paler in colour above, and has the markings more obsolete 

 below, which give it a very distinct appearance from any 

 of the others ; a small dark form, nearest to britomartis 

 but differing somewhat from it below, from the Amur, 

 which is the plotina of Bremer, and is considered a good 

 species by Graeser* (Berl. Ent. Zeits, 1888, p. 88); a 

 form named mongolica by Staudinger from Sutschan, 

 larger than plotina, and most like aurelia from Germany ; 

 a form taken by Jankowsky in Manchuria, given to 

 me as var. magna by M. Alpheraky : this is most 

 like specimens from Corea,f which I treated in P. Z. S. 



* One from Semipalatinsk in Staudinger's Coll. stands under this 

 name. 



t This is in Dr. Staudinger's Coll. as var. koreana from near 

 Gensan. 



