ANTHEOCERA (LYCASTEs) EXULANS. 445 



sparingly scaled, and the ochreous is absent." This is hardly correct, as 

 reference to the original type description of A. exulans will show, and 

 Dalman (Komjl. Vet. Acad. Handl., 1816, p. 222) distinctly describes 

 exulans as being "venis albidis," the Scandinavian form, in this, 

 agreeing with those from all other localities, the $ with, the 3- without, 

 pale nervures, although this pale coloration is certainly reduced to a 

 mimimum in a large number of examples from Bossekop that we have 

 examined. White then goes on to say that, "although the Scotch males 

 have no ochreous, the female has the nervures and collar distinctly marked 

 with that colour." Tugwell notes that "the Scotch females have a 

 yellowish-white collar, and the legs are all yellowish-white, the ridges of 

 the nervures are covered with pale whitish-grey scales, which, when alive 

 and in daylight, make them very distinctive-looking. They have a 

 powdered-looking appearance, as if they had been dusted with flour, .... 

 the' fringes are pale whitish-grey." Reid writes that " the Scotch 

 females, when alive and newly emerged, appear as if dusted over with a 

 fine whitish powder ; this appearance largely vanishes after death." We 

 have examined some hundreds (or thousands) of this species. Nor- 

 mally the male is smaller than the female, is often bluish- or purplish- 

 green, has the fore-wings more fully scaled, and the dark border of 

 the hind-wings rather broader. It usually has very slight traces of 

 a pale collar (sometimes moderately well-developed), the legs com- 

 paratively dark. The female is usually the larger, the fore-wings 

 more distinctly green, the nervures of the fore-wings whitish, whitish- 

 ochreous, or bright yellow-ochreous (sometimes the wings are beauti- 

 fully dusted with golden scales) ; the thorax, with a distinct pale 

 collar and pale epaulettes, and the legs paler, sometimes yellowish 

 in tint. 



VARIATION. Within certain narrow limits very variable, each district 

 almost producing a race with some special unimportant characters, 

 that give it a particular facies. These characters, however, are such 

 that almost any particular specimen can be exactly matched by speci- 

 mens from other districts, if a sufficiently large number be examined. 

 The variation in size of both sexes is remarkable. We have males 

 extending from 19mm. to 32mm. and females from 19 mm. to 36 mm. 

 In the Dauphine Alps, about Le Lautaret, where the insect occurs in 

 countless thousands, the luxuriant pastures about the Hospice produce 

 many exceedingly large specimens ; on the mountain slopes, 1,000 ft. 

 above, the specimens become much smaller, and, at last, on the bare 

 herbage on the skrees at the base of the highest peaks, they are quite 

 dwarfed, evidently owing to the larvae being very badly placed for food. 

 In the ground colour, the scaling shows great differences, some 

 examples being thickly scaled, the green colour bright, and distinctly 

 defined, in others, the scaling is weak, the specimens more than usually 

 inclined to be diaphanous, the colour indefinite, sometimes tending to 

 phaeism, at others to albinism, in many cases probably due to insufficient 

 nutrition in the larval stage. The carmine spots also vary in inten- 

 sity, and often tend slightly to orange (especially when the insect has 

 been on the wing a short time), and Oberthiir records (and 

 figures) an extreme aberration with clear yellow spots and yellow 

 hind-wings. The spots tend occasionally to form longitudinal streaks, 

 and then always by the union of 3 + 5 and 2 + 4, as in A. purpuralis, 

 but only on one occasion have we met with a specimen with the central 



