470 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



Z. lonicerae, Z. trifolii and other species of the same genus ; antennas seem rather 

 finer. It is altogether a very curious-looking insect (Prest). 



Prest bred a specimen during the last week of July, 1883, and the 

 following day captured six others on the ground from which the first 

 pupa had come at Sandburn, near York. He himself considered that 

 it might be a good local form of A. lonicerae. When on the wing it had 

 a washed-out appearance. Porritt, at the time, suggested that the 

 aberration was possibly due to a diseased condition of the larvae, and 

 stated that he had bred similar examples of A. filipendulae. 



q. ab. major, Frey, " Lep. der Schweiz," p. 67 (1880) ; " Mitt. Schw. Ent. 

 Ges.," vii., p. 15 (1887). Lonicerae, Hb.-Gey., "Eur. Schmett.," fig. 160 (1841). 

 Larger, deeper blue-black in colour, brighter red ; black marginal border of hind- 

 wings broader. The large form usually wjrth pointed fore-wings and broad mar- 

 ginal border to hind-wings, has been found by Meisner in Cantons Tessin and 

 Wallis ; it is abundant in the Visp Valley, e.g., in 1869, near St. Nicolas. Trapp 

 also met with this insect in Wallis, and Eiitzer in the Baguethal there. Specimens 

 also from Chur were in Caflisch's collection, and at Bergiin they appear more like 

 normal A. lonicerae. Near Zurich, I captured a specimen with confluent spots, and 

 Killias found a yellow one near Tarasp (Frey). 



This large form of A. lonicerae is pretty generally distributed in the 

 warm valleys of Piedmont, Savoy and Switzerland. We have taken 

 it abundantly at Aix-les-Bains, St. Michel de Maurienne, etc. It also 

 occurs in the Austrian Tyrol. Christ records it from Bar on Mt. Cenis, 

 the largest maesuring 42 mm., with large red spots and broad hind 

 marginal border to hind-wings (' medicayinisj . Staudinger notes that 

 some large and very bright-coloured specimens, which he received 

 from Parnassus and Veluchi, he at first referred to his var. dubia (with 

 certain anyelicae, stoechadis and alpine filipendulae), but afterwards 

 determined that they belonged here. Hiibner's (Geyer's) fig. 160 

 appears to be referable to this form. Caradja notes the Roumanian 

 specimens as large, with deep steel-blue fore-wings, the red spots often 

 quite small. In Britain the finest specimens approaching this form 

 come from the Mullinures in Armagh. Those from Filey, on the 

 Yorkshire coast, more closely approach medicayinis. 



(?) 9. var. medicaginis, Boisduval, " Mon. des Zyg.," p. 66, in part, pi. iv., fig. 5 

 (1829) ; Dup., " Hist. Nat.," supp. ii., p. 74, pi. vi., fig. 6 (1835) ; Tutt, " Proc. Sth. 

 Lond. Ent. Soc.," 1894, pp. 107-111 ; " Ent. Record," etc.,ix., pp. 168, et seq. (1897) ; 

 Oberthiir, "Bull. Soc. Ent. France," 1898, p. 23. Charon, Bdv., " Icones," p. 61, 

 pi. liv., fig 9 (1834). Stoechadis, H.-Sch., " Sys. Bearb.," fig. 45 (1845). l)ul,i,i, 

 Staud., " Cat.," p. 21, in part (1861) ; " Cat.," p. 47, in part (1871) ; Christ, " Mitt. 

 Sch. Ent. Ges.,"vi., p. 43. in part (1880) ; Oberth., " Lep. des Pyr.." p. 31 (1884). 

 Alis anticis saturate cyaneis vel virescentibus, maculis quinque minutis sanguineis ; 

 posticis rubris margine latiore cy&neo = medicar/inis, Bdv., Mon. Zyg., pi. iv., fig. 

 5. A little larger than A. filipendulae. Habitat : the Alps of Piedmont, etc, (Bois- 

 duval). 



Boisduval himself differentiated (Icones, p. 61) under the name of 

 charon (nee. Hb.), the 5-spotted insect here described, from a 6-spotted 

 species (? ochsenheimeri, Zell.), which two species he had united in the 

 Monog. des Zygtnides, p. 64. The same combination was made by 

 Staudinger, whose dubia (Cat., p. 47) diagnosed as : " var. major, al. 

 ant. macul. 5 vel. 6, al. post, latius nigris," includes both the five- 

 spotted charon, Bdv., and the six-spotted oclisenheimeri, Zell., his dubia 

 coming from the " southern Alpine valleys, Pyrenees and ? Greece." 

 In the Proc. Sth. Lond. Ent. Soc., 1894, pp. 107 et seq., we have 

 pointed out how easily such an erroneous combination may be made, 

 and we find that Oberthiir, who has kindly sent us the two insects 

 (as dubia) from the Pyrenees, also unites them under the same name 



