62 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



Argynm's niobe, Steph., 111. Brit. Ent. Haust, i., p. 37 (1827); 

 Kirby, Eur. Butterflies and Moths, p. 20 (1878); Lang, 

 Butterflies Eur., p. 210, pi. 50, fig. i, pi. 53, fig. 5, larva 

 (1883); Barrett, Lepid. Brit. Tsl., i., p. 165 (1892). 



Var. a. Argynnis ens. 



Argynnis eris, Meig., Eur. Schmett., i., p. 64, pi. 14, fig. 5 



(18:29). 

 Papilio deodoxa (nee Ochsenh.) Esper, Schmett., i. (2), p. 3, 



pi. 94, fig. 3 (1782). 

 Argvnnis niobe^ var. en's, Lang, /.c. t p. 211, pi. 50, fig. 3 



(1883). 



This species has long been reputed British, and is said to be 

 occasionally captured in the South of England, and there- 

 fore we have figured it in the present volume, though it has not 

 yet been clearly established whether the supposed British 

 specimens of A. niobe, if of truly British origin, were not 

 really varieties of A. adippe. On the Continent, it is at least 

 as common a species as the latter, and is met with at the 

 same time of year. 



This Fritillary is of the same size as A. adippe^ and much 

 resembles it. The row of black spots consists of six spots on 

 the fore-wings (the gap mentioned in the description of A. 

 adippe being filled up with a small spot) and five on the hind- 

 wings. In the male, the nervures are not thickened ; and there 

 are one or two pale spots near the tip of the fore-wings in the 

 female, which are wanting in typical A. adippe. The under 

 side of the hind-wings is pale yellow, slightly tinged with 

 green, and the pale spots are much more often yellowish (var. 

 A. en's) than silvery. There is a row of four at the base, then 

 three large ones (between these is a small black or silvery dot, 

 wanting in A. adippe)', generally traces of another row of 

 smaller ones, next a row of seven rather large ones, the centra] 



