486 BRITISH LEPIDOPTEBA. 



a broader border on the inner margin which is absent in rubicundm. 

 Staudinger diagnoses it as " maculis confluentibus." Lederer notes 

 (Yerh. zool.-bot. Yer. Wien, ii.,p. 93) that Heydenreich unites polyaalae 

 and rubicundus, but avers that this cannot be correct, since Esper 

 gives Brauenheim, nr. Frankfort, as the locality for the former, 

 whilst the latter -occurs only in Eomagna and Asia Minor. He con- 

 siders it as nearer Zeller's heringi, since it is described as of a fiery red 

 colour in contrast to the thin scaling of pilosellae. This is scarcely so, 

 and polyyalae and rubicundus both appear to represent the form in 

 which the normally dividing nervures have become covered with red 

 scales, the latter only having the red more extended than the former, 

 although Standfuss considers the latter a distinct species. Curo says 

 it occurs with the type in Sicily. The Swiss localities are the Valais 

 and Bechburg (Stehlin), Killias, near Tarasp (Christ), rare in South 

 Sweden (Aurivillius), Weinheim in Baden (Reutti). '[Vide also 

 Staudinger, infra, p. 487.] 



77. ? var. rubicundus, Hb., " Samm. Eur. Schmett.," ii., fig. 137 (without de- 

 scription) (? 1818). The fore-wings are of an uniform fiery vermilion, inclining to 

 coppery-red, with rather more crimson hind-wings, a narrow greenish border only 

 along the outer margin of both fore- and hind- wings. 



Staudinger diagnoses (Cat., p. 45) this form (or species) as : " Alis 

 anticis totis sanguineis, margine anteriore angusto cyaneo. Central 

 Italy." He refers erythrus, Dup. (Lep. France, supp. ii., pi. iv., fig. 1), 

 to this form. Curo notes it as moderately common in the central 

 (Romagna), and more common in the southern (Neapolitan), provinces 

 of Italy, and of doubtful occurrence in Sicily. Standfuss, from speci- 

 mens received from Calberla, redescribes (Stett. Ent. Zeit., xlv., p. 207) 

 this as a good species : " Alis anticis rubris, margine costali versus 

 apicem margineque exteriore cyaneis ( $ colore pallidiore atque parti- 

 bus alarum anticarum rubris flavo marginatis) ; posticis rubris ciliis 

 cyaneo-griseis. Capite, thorace, ano griseo pilosis, palpis pedibusque 

 stramineis. Exp. alar. 30-32 mm. 6 <? , 6 $ . Patria : Italia cen- 

 tralis, regiones montanae 4-5,000 ft." He then adds that the species 

 agrees in wing-form with A. purpuralis, the red similar to very 

 brilliantly coloured examples of the same, the antennas similar to 

 those of that species, but not so strongly thickened before the tip ; 

 Hiibner, he asserts, figures a ? , unmistakable from the yellow tinge 

 into which the red shades off ; to this the erytlmus, Bdv. (Mon. Zyy., 

 p. 28, pi. i., fig. 6) is to be referred. (Boisduval cites as a synonym of 

 his erytknis, Hiibner's, pi. xviii., fig. 8, which he contradicts later, 

 Icones, ii., p. 86, pi. lii., fig. 1.) Standfuss says that it appears to be 

 a purely mountain species, and not variable ; Calberla took the 

 specimens flying with A. pilosellae var. nubiyena, and a striking grey 

 form of A. acldlleae. Staudinger challenged (Berl. Ent. Zeits., xxxi., 

 p. 32) these conclusions, stating that erythrus, Bdv. (Mon. Zyy., 

 pi. i., fig. 6), appeared to him entirely different from Hiibner's fig. 

 137, and that the whitish colour on the thorax, etc., which Stand- 

 fuss relied upon as distinguishing rubicundus, was equally strongly 

 marked in undoubted $ pilosellae, from Amasia, and even more 

 strongly white-haired than the Sicilian erythrus, Hb., and the rubi- 

 cundus caught by Standfuss in the Abruzza. Standfuss, in reply, 

 figured (Ibid., xxxii., pp. 237-238) the genitalia of rubicundm, the 

 red form vi purpuralis (= polyyalae) and punctum, from which it would 

 appear that his rubicundus is perfectly distinct from purpuralis. One 



