30 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of the subject in the * Water-Babies,' where he says that if the 

 Professor's dignity had allowed him to examine Tom instead of 

 throwing him back into the water, he would have given him two 

 long Latin names, the first of which would have told a little 

 about Tom and the second all about himself, as of course he 

 would have called him " Hydroteknon Ptthmllnsprtsianum." It 

 was a good skit then — it would be a better now. 



Athalia, being by far the most generally distributed and 

 perhaps also the most variable of the group, has naturally given 

 rise to the largest number of named forms. We will take first 

 those which depend on the unusual grouping of the ordinary 

 black and fulvous of the upper side, a peculiarity usually, though 

 not always, associated with more or less abnormality on the 

 under side. The majority of these forms may be divided into 

 two groups : in the first the fulvous, in the second the fuscous 

 colour prevails. 



In the first group the oldest named form appears to be ab. 

 corythalia, Hiibner, 'Beitrjige,' vol. ii. pt. ii. tab. 3, S, a, b 

 (1790). 



In the remarks he makes on the illustration (p. 51) he 

 expresses a doubt as to whether it is a good species or an aber- 

 rant form of athalia. He gives no description of it, but refers 

 to the illustration in which both upper and under side are shown, 

 and from which the following description is made : — 



Up. s. f. w. : Mostly fulvous ; a broad black border, to which the 

 outer subterminal line appears to be joined, as there are no lunules ; 

 the inner subterminal narrow ; the upper part of the elbowed line 

 wanting ; stigma black, triangular : two triangular black patches at 

 the base, one on each side of the median nervure. 



Up. s. h, w. : Blackish, except for one row of fulvous spots near 

 the border. 



Un. s. f. w. : Tip yellow, the rest of the wing fulvous, but with 

 three short black dashes representing the costal part of the elbowed 

 line, and a row nearer the base ; the outline of the stigma and the 

 space between the basal lines each contain darker colouring ; below 

 there is a basal dash. 



Un. s. h. w. : Outer half pale yellow, inner half fulvous, divided by 

 a strong black line ; the light spot apparently replaced by a black one, 

 and all the spots of the basal band black ; outer band represented by 

 a row of five orange spots, the central part being unrepresented. 



This form, or something closely resembling it, has been 

 treated by some of the older authors as a separate species. The 

 name itself has, however, been variously employed. Hiibner 

 himself, in his ' Sammlung,' i. pi. 3, figs. 15, 16, appears to 

 illustrate dictynna under this title ; what Freyer meant when he 

 mentions it incidentally in his account of asteria ('Beitrage,' i. 

 p. 116, 1828) it would have been impossible to guess, but in the 

 ' Neiiere Beitriige,' iv. p. 49 (1852) he gives it as a synonym of 

 dictynna, referring to the above-mentioned figure of Hiibner. 



