THE ATHALIA GROUP OF THE GENUS MELIT-aSA. 149 



covered with hair, and red only at the apex. The venation is dis- 

 tinctly darker. The abdomen is conspicuously different, being nar- 

 rower, with the hair-bands white. The hind margins of the segments 

 are more transparent, so that the basal hair-bands can be seen through 

 them. The first segment is very strongly punctured. From M. 

 hallstrcemia phenacoides, CklL, this is readily known by the greyish- 

 red (instead of green) eyes, the dark venation, the shorter tongue, 

 the much less hairy hind tibia, and the white hair-band on seg- 

 ment five. 



Hah. Lee County, Texas, November, 1908 (Birkmann, 

 No. 15). The name loeiia is derived from a Malay word re- 

 ferring to flowers. 



Boulder : April Ist, 1909. 



THE ATHALIA GEOUP OF THE GENUS MELIT^A. 

 By Eev. George Wheeler, M.A., F.E.S. 



(Continued from p. 115.) 



We must now pass to the named forms of other species than 

 athalia, though it may be well to note in passing that Aurivillius 

 in the ' Nordens Fjarilar' treats both aurelia and parthenie 

 (called by him parthenie and parthenoides respectively) as 

 varieties of athalia, on the ground of their mutual resemblance 

 and specific variability. It is possible that this use of the name 

 parthenie for aurelia elsewhere may account for the apparent 

 confusion between the two species in many German authors, a 

 confusion so great as often to leave one in doubt as to how many 

 of the latter really know parthenie at all, a doubt which more 

 rarely assails one when dealing with French or Swiss writers. 



Deione var. herisalensis has already been somewhat fully dealt 

 with, and the resemblance between the Swiss and the southern 

 Spanish forms touched upon. I have, in fact, specimens from 

 South Spain which I should certainly have supposed to come 

 from Martigny, though they are perhaps slightly lighter in 

 ground colour and the a;-mark is not so defined as is usual in 

 the more northern specimens. To my mind this resemblance 

 appeals as a further confirmation of the specific identity of the 

 two forms, and should they ever be proved to be distinct, the 

 Southern Spanish race will have to be united with herisalensis 

 and not with deione. It should perhaps be noted that Freyer's 

 deione ( * Neiiere Beitnige,' vi. p. 21, pi. 493, fig. 1, 1852) is merely 

 a small specimen of parthenie, which accounts for his unwilling- 

 ness to allow it specific rank, as he was evidently unacquainted 

 with the real insect. 



There appear to be three named forms of parthenie, viz. : 

 aphcea (Freyer nee Hiibner), which has already been described 

 {antea, p. 57), jordisi, Riihl, and hcata, Caradja. 



