110 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



whitish markings are more reduced in size, the inner series of 

 the double first row being sometimes almost obliterated. With 

 the exception of a white spot at the hind margin of the discoidal 

 cell, and another just inside it, the wing is quite black to the 

 first row, which, being small, extends the black almost to two- 

 thirds of the wing. The fulvous in the fore wmg is represented 

 only by a trace along the outer edge of the second row. In the 

 hind wing the black practically extends to the fulvous second 

 row, the first row being only represented by a string of small 

 white spots. Most of the specimens are of small or moderate 

 size. I think this form might fairly be called ab. nigra. 



Var. scotica (Robson). — Similar to the last aberration in the 

 extension of the dark marking, but the whitish is much duller, 

 and is often replaced by reddish ochreous, which makes a very 

 handsome variety, having an appearance which might be termed 

 black and tan or tortoiseshell. 



Mr. Kane ('Entomologist,' 1893) says of it: "The straw- 

 coloured patches are of a duller tone than those of the preceding 

 variety [praedara]. The fulvous submarginal band of the fore 

 wing is suffused centrally with yellowish, but that of the hind wing 

 usually retains its normal colour and size." He says of the black 

 colour : "Filling the basal area of all the wings up to the fulvous 

 discoidal patch in the fore wing, and the pale central series of 

 the hind wing, the pale discoidal spot of which, however, is 

 usually retained." 



The only specimens I have of this form are from Westmeath 

 and Kildare. It was named, I believe, from specimens from 

 Aberdeen, but I have never seen the types. 



Ah. hihernica (Birchall). — In the ' Entomologist,' 1893, Mr. 

 Kane gives a translation of Birchall's description. Male. Wings 

 above black. Fore wings ornamented with fulvous patches 

 arranged in a series near the hind margin, with a number of 

 others in the middle white or whitish straw-coloured, joined at 

 the inner margin, forming a blotch. The hind wings with a 

 broad fulvous fascia along the hind margin (the fulvous marks 

 on the narrow black outer margin of examples of the type being 

 indistinct or obsolete in the variety.) Beneath pale fulvous, 

 with similar, but indistinct, pattern. 



Female : — Fore wings fulvous, marked with a double row of 

 white or pale straw-coloured patches, sometimes confluent, and 

 forming fasciae, with the outer band carried on across the hind 

 wings. Hind wings as in the typical form, but ornamented 

 with neither pale straw colour nor fulvous patches. 



I presume this dark condition is intended to refer only to the 

 basal part of the wing. I have never seen a specimen of this 

 species of any variety — even var. merope — that had not some 

 red on the hind wings. Large size is also given as a charac- 

 teristic of this aberration. 



