666 Dr. T. A. Chapman on an 



Society with Agriades alexins, Frr., in the title. I have, 

 however, since (November) met with a reference to the 

 butterfly in Cantener.* On plate XI he figures upper 

 and underside of " Argus Alexis $ ," the text deals with 

 "33. Argus Alexis, (i) Fab. God. Boisd., pi. XI, fig. 1 

 et 2," followed by twenty-one lines, referring only to 

 Alexis {icarus), but the note (}) says, " L'individu figure 

 ici est le veritable Thersites, Boisd. (collection). Get 

 Argus a ete confondu jusqu'a present avec Y Alexis, et 

 n'en dififere que par I'absence de deux points ocelles places 

 pres de la base des ailes superieures. On le rencontre 

 aussi commun^ment dans le midi de la France que 

 V Alexis." 



So far as the description goes it does not rescue the 

 insect from being confused with icarus, var. icarinus. But 

 when we refer to the figure we find the underside shown 

 is that of our insect (thersites or alexins) and not of icarns, 

 var. icarinus, that is, the two last spots at the tornus of 

 the upper wing are in line with the preceding one, and 

 the first orange spot of the lower wing is advanced 

 basally ; both these characters no doubt occur in icarus, 

 but rarely, and the two combined more rarely still. I 

 don't think I have such a specimen, certainly not in the 

 icarinus form, and when we take this with the statement 

 that it occurs freely in the South of France, there is no 

 room for doubt as to what the insect is. 



This circumstance illustrates in a remarkable way M. 

 Oberthiir's demand that all descriptions should be accom- 

 panied by good figures. The figure (otherwise of no par- 

 ticular excellence) shows us two items which Gantener did 

 not see and indeed,by implication, denied the existence of, 

 and enables us to know what species he was dealing 

 with. Very possibly some of the claims set forward for 

 icarinus being a good species may have been founded on 

 thersites, but in the absence of figures, no conclusion can 

 be reached as to them, except to assume that they are 

 icarinus, a name that can only be accepted as the variety 

 of icarus. 



Boisduval's type specimens (^ and ^) of thersites are in 

 the collection of M. Oberthtir, and he has very kindly 



* Histoire Naturelle des Lepidopteres Rhopaloc^res ou Papillons 

 diurnes des departemens des Haut et Bas-Rliin, de la Moselle, de 

 la Meurthe et des Vosges, Par L. P. Cantener, Avocat, ex-Professeur 

 h. r^cole de Sor^ge. Paris, 1834. 



