[From the ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATUBAL HisxoBY/or 

 February 1887.] 



Description of a new Butterfly allied to Vanessa antiopa. 

 By ARTHUR G. BUTLER, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



FOR some years past I have held the view that what is 

 generally understood by the term species (that is to say, a 

 well-defined, distinct, and constant type, having no near allies) 

 is non-existent in the Lepidoptera, and that the nearest 

 approach to it in this order is a constant, though but slightly 

 differing, race or local form that genera, in fact, consist 

 wholly of a gradational series of such forms. 



In opposition to this view certain " species " are cited as 

 isolated, or in no way united by existing intergrades to their 

 nearest allies, from which, moreover, they show such wide 

 differences that the existence of intergrades is regarded as 

 highly improbable. One of the best known and, at the same 

 time, widely distributed of these apparently isolated species is 

 Vanessa antiopa, which, although slightly modified locally in 

 size and tint (the Central-American form being usually 

 smaller and the North- American larger and more heavily 

 speckled than the European type), yet has no described allies 





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