104 Mr. A. G. Butler on a new Butterfly. 



nearer than the blue-belted V. ylauconia^ charonia, and 

 haronica. 



The forms differing from the type of V. antiopa — V. 

 Jiygicea, from Europe, and V. Lintnei-i, from the United States 

 — are regarded, with every likelihood of being right, as aber- 

 rations of that species ; judging from Hiibner's figure (lettered 

 " antiopa ") and Fitch's description, these aberrations appear 

 to be very similar, differing chiefly from the normal form in 

 the absence of many of the blue spots and the slightly wider 

 yellow border of all the wings. 



The following form is less likely to be a variety of V. an- 

 tiopa than the others, since the modification of the border is 

 not uniform and at the same time is far more remarkable ; it 

 was obtained by the Hon. Walter De Rothschild from a 

 collection of Lepidoptera chiefly from British Honduras, but 

 with which the collector had carelessly placed species obtained 

 in British Guiana. At the same time, as the small form of 

 the allied V. antiopa occurs in Mexico and Guatemala, it is 

 more probable that the former locality is the correct one than 

 the latter. 



Vanessa Thomsonii, n. sp. 



Colouring darker than in V. antiopa ; primaries with pale 

 straw-coloured outer border, about as wide as in that species, 

 but heavily mottled with black, especially upon the veins ; a 

 subapical oblique yellow spot followed by five smaller 

 decreasing and less distinct spots of the same colour, but fol- 

 lowed by whitish scales, the whole forming an elbowed series ; 

 costa speckled with yellowish in the centre : secondaries with 

 the basal three fifths of the same dark dull chocolate-brown 

 as the primaries, the external two fifths, which are separated 

 by a sharply defined, regularly dentate-sinuate line from costa 

 to anal angle, straw-yellow, rather heavily mottled with 

 black, but densely so upon the tail. Below, the general colour- 

 ing is sericeous dark grey-brown, rather browner on the 

 primaries than on the secondaries, striated throughout with 

 intense black ; the borders of the wings are broadly paler, of 

 more equal width than above, bounded internally by two or 

 three white points, and mottled with white; the fringe 

 ochreous, interrupted by the black veins. Expanse of wings 

 67 millim. 



British Honduras ? (coU. Hon. W. De Rothschild) . 



It will be seen that the outer border of the secondaries in 

 this insect is twice the width of that of the primaries. 



