THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELITJEA. 113 



Petiver's * Icones ' (mentioned above), pi. iii., figs. 11, 12.* 

 This figure is in a wholly different style from Stephens' own 

 plates, and is evidently faithfully copied, as he says, in the 

 rough colouring of the original ; the colouring must, however, 

 have altered materially in the course of years, as there is a great 

 discrepancy between its present appearance and Stephens' 

 description. 



Petiver's original description (without name) is : " Papilio 

 fritillaria tessellata serotina subtus straminea," whilst Stephens' 

 runs : " Alis supra fulvis nigro tessellatis, posticis subtus 

 stramineis fasciis tribus flavidis lunulisque nigris." As it 

 appears at j)resent, the fuscous and fulvous of the up. s. are 

 merely two shades of reddish brown (a form which I have met 

 with more than once in nature) ; the un. s. f. w. has the lunules 

 and a partial second row of spots within the outer subterminal 

 yellow, and the rest of the wing normal in pattern and red-brown 

 in colour ; the un. s. h. w. has the outer and inner bands 

 blackish grey, the terminal, central, and basal bands bright 

 yellow; the light spot breaks into the basal band. Stephens' 

 description of it runs, however, as follows : " Similar in size 

 and shape to M. athalia, but evidently distinct : the wings are 

 rather paler above : the anterior more fulvous beneath : the 

 posterior are very dissimilar to those of the above insect {athalia), 

 being entirely straw-coloured, with black nervures : at the base 

 are three large square yellowish spots surrounded by black : an 

 arcuated band in the middle composed of yellowish somewhat 

 quadrate spots, which are nearly confluent and placed in a double 

 row, and edged with black : there is then a streak of black 

 lunules pointing outwards : then a marginal band composed of 

 yellowish spots encircled with black, each yellow spot being 

 (? bearing) a black lunule : the cilia are white intersected with 

 black." This form was said by Petiver to have been fairly 

 common in Cain Wood in his time ! 



There remains a named form, difficult to place with certainty, 

 but which may possibly belong to athalia, viz., veronicce, Dorf- 

 meister. We first find this name in the * Verhandlung des 

 zoologischen-botanischen Vereins in Wien,' vol. iii., p. 136 (1853), 

 where Dorfmeister merely says that this form is near to dictynna, 

 but gives no further account of the imago, which he was evidently 

 exhibiting and left to speak for itself. He gives a short des- 

 cription of the larva and pupa, and for comparison an equally 

 short description of those of athalia and parthenie, the total out- 

 come of which seems to be that he was quite unacquainted 



■•' There is a reference in the ' Illustrations ' to the same author's 

 ' Catalogue ' which was not published till 1829, which is somewhat puzzling. 

 I can only conjecture that Stephens was occupied on both at once, and that 

 the earlier part of the Catalogue was written at this time, though not 

 published. 



