22 Mr. H. J. Elwes' additional notes 



aberration, or a hybrid, and to which form the name is 

 to be appHed. 



With regard to what is known as Clirysodona, Kinder- 

 man = Helictha, Lederer, he says that amongst fifty or 

 more specimens which he has examined there exist two 

 forms, one of which, inconstant, he beHeves to be a 

 hybrid between Edusa and Erate, which he declares he 

 has several times taken in cojyuld, and the other, which 

 he believes to be an ochreous variety or aberration of 

 Erate, found not uncommonly in the environs of Azoff, 

 and also in the Thian-chian and near Kuldja, where 

 Edusa does not occur. 



I may add that in the Vienna Museum are three pairs 

 of a variety of Hyale from Nubia and Egypt, collected 

 by Marno, which, if correctly labelled, as I believe they 

 are, extend the range of this species much farther than 

 is generally known. 



From Japan, Amur-land, Askold, and Shanghai I 

 have numerous specimens representing several sup- 

 posed species, none of which I can see the slightest 

 reason for separating ; and, after comparing about 

 seventy specimens in my collection from various parts 

 of Europe and Asia, can say only that, whilst I can 

 usually distinguish typical European Hyale by the 

 shade of colour in the male, and by the somewhat 

 shorter and narrower black band on the fore wing 

 and less conspicuous border on the hind wing in both 

 sexes, I can find specimens from all parts of Asia 

 which cannot, by the most ardent believer in the fixity 

 of species, be defined by any constantly different cha- 

 racters. 



I have not myself any specimens from N.E. Asia 

 representing Erate male, but Bremer records it from 

 Possiet Bay, and Murray from Japan, cf. Elwes, in Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 879. 



Pryer, in his 'Catalogue of Japanese Lepidoptera,' 

 says of Hyale " that it is an abundant and variable insect 

 both on plains and mountains. It varies in size from 

 If in. to 2^ in. ; appears first in February, when it is 

 small and lightly coloured, the successive broods being 

 larger and brighter. The female is dimorphic." 



From the above facts I conclude that the two sj^ecies, 

 however distinct in their typical forms, do in the regions 

 where they occur together interbreed and vary to such 

 an extent that they are not certainly to be distinguished, 



