THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELIT^A. O 



originally described specimens came. These are of course 

 absolutely authentic, and I exhibited them the day after their 

 arrival {i.e. Nov. 18th) at the meeting of the Ent. Soc. of London, 

 and also on the 26th at the South London Meeting. They may 

 be most readily described as the converse of britomartis, having 

 the upper side of dictynna, but the under side, as Hormuzaki says, 

 generally nearest to parthenie, but often to athalia and sometimes 

 even to deione, " but never," as he remarks, "like aurelia," and, 

 one may add, still less like dictynna. Hormuzaki's account is too 

 long for transcription, and also unfortunately treats the dark 

 part as the ground-colour (excusably enough in the Bukowina 

 Melitaas of this group), so that the simplest plan would seem to 

 be to describe it from his specimens in terms of the general 

 description of the group (vol. xli., pp. 200, 201, 221), noting 

 those respects in which he mentions this form as being variable. 



Up. s. f. w. : Lunules replaced by small quadrangular or irregularly 

 triangular spots in the male, occasionally regularly triangular in the 

 female, the lowest always absent and the third always somewhat the 

 largest. Subterminal and elbowed lines thick, leaving small, more 

 or less quadrangular spots of the ground colour ; inner subterminal 

 almost as much bent as in athalia ; marginal blotch very large but 

 sometimes containing a patch of the ground colour, especially in the 

 female. Stigma oval, containing traces of the ground colour, or only 

 thickly outlined ; basal lines thick, or, in the male, included in the 

 basal suffusion which almost reaches the marginal blotch. 



Up. s. h. w. : Outer line coalescing with border, so as to form a broad 

 marginal band, rarely showing traces of a row of spots of the ground 

 colour in the male, oftener in the female, where they are sometimes 

 fairly distinct, round, triangular, or even lunular, whitish in some 

 females and in one male, especially near the costa ; inner line included 

 in the large basal suffusion, which in some males extends over the 

 whole wing, as in dictynna ab. seminigra (Musch.), though occasion- 

 ally it only reaches to the extra line, giving another line of spots of 

 the ground colour, or sometimes of a lighter shade, some of which 

 are in rare cases lengthened out towards the base. 



Un. s. f. w. : Inner line of border bearing (in both my specimens) 

 small dark triangles as in deione ; lunules light, especially towards the 

 costa, and two or three light spots between the subterminal lines, the 

 outer of which is distinct, the inner traceable, throughout ; elbowed 

 line represented by a row of spots, most conspicuous, as is the inner 

 subterminal, near the costa ; marginal blotch very small, the other 

 dark markings clear but fine. 



Un. s. h. w. : Inner edge of border slightly angulated, both parts 

 of terminal band nearly (or quite) unicolorous, which is also the case 

 in my specimens with the central band ; outer band interrupted near 

 costa, the lunules almost reaching the central band, and being utterly 

 destitute of the black points of dictynna and britomartis ; central band 

 very broad, the third and fourth spots not projecting far beyond the 

 others ; inner band rather narrow, with small light spot, basal band 

 also narrow, with very small central spot and the fifth spot absent. 



