SOME BRITISH FORMS OF MELITJEA AURINIA. 109 



var. artemis, which I have never found in Ireland. The black 

 spots in the fulvous second row of the hind wing are sometimes 

 surrounded with ochreous. This occasionally occurs to a slight 

 extent in the type also. The black spots are sometimes com- 

 pletely absent, giving a peculiarly red aspect to the hind wing. 



Ab. virgata (Tutt). — " The central straw-coloured band of 

 the fore wings is normally divided at the top by a black streak. 

 This is sometimes absent, the two series are united, and the 

 band is broad and very conspicuous." (Tutt, 'Brit. Butterflies,' 

 p. 317.) This aberration is not very uncommon in Irish speci- 

 mens. I have some from Westmeath in which it is carried to 

 an extreme extent. One, a male, has no red, except on the 

 second row of the hind wings. The first row white and large, 

 the inner white spot conspicuous, otherwise the inner half of the 

 hind wing is black. In the fore wing, the usual fulvous markings 

 are almost white. The base of the wing is whitish, almost to 

 the body, with a dull dark spot across the centre, and on the 

 hind margin of the discoidal cell. A dull, rather faint streak of 

 dark colour passes from the middle of the inner side of the 

 discoidal cell to the first nervure. The pale spots of the first 

 band are confluent and much extended, occupying almost the 

 whole central portion of the wing to the first nervure ; even 

 the usual dark space between this and the inner margin is 

 nearly white. In other specimens the whitish first band is con- 

 fluent and much extended, and forms a broad whitish blotch 

 across the wing to the first nervure, but the base of the wing is 

 always dark, and there is always some reddish tint in the second 

 row of the fore wing. 



The direct opposite of this aberration is found where the 

 dark areas are very black, and so much extended as to greatly 

 reduce, and even often obliterate, many of the other markings. 

 The relationship to var. virgata is shown in the suppression 

 of the fulvous colouring, giving the specimens a black and white 

 appearance, but here the black colour predominates instead of 

 the whitish. In some males that I have from Westmeath, the 

 basal half of the fore wing is black, but sometimes a small white 

 spot is visible near the centre of the discoidal cell. A more 

 distinct one always appears at the hind margin of the cell. The 

 first row is much reduced in size, and is of a clear whitish colour. 

 The second row small, white, with a slight trace of pale fulvous 

 at the hind margin of the spots. Throughout the whole wing 

 the black is much extended, diminishing the other markings. 

 The hind wing is black to the first row, which is small but 

 distinctly whitish. In the second row the spots are small, but 

 the fulvous colour undimmed, and there is always some trace of 

 the whitish third row, as small distinct spots in the wide black 

 marginal band. 



In some females this effect is carried still further. The 



