Ercbia palarica and Erebia stygne. 15 



markedly in the two species. In stygne it extends basally 

 in a rounded or even pointed projection in the middle of 

 the interneural space, leaving the nervures, pronounced as 

 sharp angular interruptions. In palarica the blotches 

 extend inwards rather along the nervures than centrally, 

 and the ocelli never bear the aspect of being at the 

 outer end of the blotch as they so often have in stygne. 

 Palarica never follows stygne in this character of the hind- 

 wing, but a few stygne have a little of the tendency of 

 palarica. 



I have one specimen, and one only of E. stygne $ , that 

 so far traverses some of these distinctive points, that it may 

 really be a hybrid. It is small like stygne, but has the 

 inner margin of the blotches of the hind-wings like palarica. 

 The blotches of the fore-wiugs are not distinctive, but the 

 large double apical ocellus is placed in the blotch very 

 much as in palarica. In stygne these ocelli are usually 

 nearer the outer than inner margin of the blotch, in 

 palarica they are quite median. 



To resume the distinctive characters of palarica and 

 stygne, the under-side shows some slight differences. In 

 both, the under-side of the hind-wing in the $ is often 

 smooth, black and polished, with little or no marking, this 

 is in fact the rule in stygne, and it is often difficult to make 

 out the central darker band, and when seen it appears to 

 have rather a smooth margin. This form is rare in 

 palarica and generally the central band is quite conspicuous, 

 and in a few instances has some white markings just out- 

 side its outer border. This border is always carried 

 outwards in the interneural spaces, and the general facies 

 is much more that of evicts than of stygne. The markings 

 are usually very distinct, with stygne one cannot find a 

 specimen marked enough to make a satisfactory comparison. 

 The $ palarica under-side differs from that of stygne, var. 

 hispanica, in being less brown, more grey, and in being 

 more distinctly marked, the basal margin of the central 

 band being obscure or wanting in most stygne. There is, 

 however, much variation in both species. If the difference 

 be noted as a slight resemblance in the facies of the under- 

 side of the hind-wings to evias, wanting in stygne, then 

 we find that var. pmalarsz of stygne goes nearly as far in 

 this direction as palarica, and var. bejarensis goes much 

 further. 



A distinctive character is the structure of the clasps of 



