15 



out and often dividing towards the inner margin ; this we will refer 

 to as the " elhoived line," and to the spread-out portion as the 

 " iiiartiinal blotch.'" Beyond the elbowed line, nearer to the base, 

 and starting from the first nervure below the costa, is a black spot, 

 normally only outlined and filled in with the ground colour ; this 

 we will call the " stii/ma " ; this frequently joins the elbowed line at 

 its last bend, in such a way as to make it appear to form one line 

 with the lower part of the elbowed line. Still nearer to the base 

 are two narrow black lines, the " basal lines," slightly inclining out- 

 wards from the costa, in a generally parallel direction to each other, 

 but nowhere actually parallel, as both are irregularly curved and 

 the curves are not parallel. Finally, there is a dark "basal stiff a- 

 sion " of varying extent. 



A momentary examination of the three species would show at 

 once that this holds good for all, and it is essentially true of all 

 other species of the genus. The differences occur in the mtervening 

 portions of the wings. In cinxia and, to a slightly less extent, in 

 athalui the rest of the wing is unicolorous, while in most forms of 

 aurinia it consists of alternate bands of a darker and lighter, 

 generally also of a redder and yellower colour. There are, however, 

 species in all the groups in which this type of colouring persists in 

 certain varieties or aberrations. In the atlialia-gvoi\]i it is most 

 conspicuous in dicti/nna, though occasionally very marked in aihalia, 

 especially in certain German females. Among the r/».r/fl-group, 

 this alternation of colouring reaches its highest point of develop- 

 ment in some forms of phmbe among the European species, though 

 it is far more startling in vninannvi and some other Asiatic species. 

 The other change which occurs is caused Ijy the obsolescence of the 

 black bands, especially in desert species. They are often reduced to 

 spots in didyiiia for example, especially from dry localities, and 

 reach their maximum of obsolescence in acneina, from the desert of 

 Fergana, in which only the elbowed line is represented by three or 

 four spots. 



The underside hindwing, speaking generally, consists of five 

 bands, three lighter and two darker, all narrowly edged with black, 

 but each of these bands has its own characteristics, which often 

 help in determining the different species. The terminal light band 

 consists of two parts, a narrow edging, bordered on each side, as in 

 the forewing, by a still narrower black line, and a row of light 

 lunules, the edging being usually darker than the lunules. This 

 band turns the corner, as it were, of the anal angle, and appears as 

 a triangular light spot, the inner line of the border being sometimes 

 absent. The outer dark band is also in many species divided into 

 two parts, consisting of a row of lunules and of the small irregular 

 spaces between these and the black outer edging ot the central light 

 band. This latter again consists essentially of two portions divided 

 irregularly by a narrow dark line and broken up into spots by the 

 nervures, the inner division being generally of a somewhat darker 

 shade than the outer. The third and fourth spots of the outer 



