310 THE ENTOMOLOGCST. 



up the limules in a band. In the Corsican variety ichnusa, 

 Bon., the brownish suffusion often confines itself to the parts 

 between the fringe and the base of the luuules, leaving the black 

 triangles round the luuules separated towards the apex by the 

 red ground colour. The margin consequently has a very jagged 

 outline. Occasionally it appears also in British specimens. The 

 opposite development is shown in fig. 2 (parvilunulata, Eynr.). 



Besides appearing in an otherwise typical facies, fig. 2, 

 the margin associated itself with a fine brown ground colour. 

 A specimen of this kind, which I reared in the beginning of 

 last June from larvae collected full-sized on May 23rd (this is 

 perhaps an early date for full-grown larvae of urticcB in England) 

 exhibited a very dark under side, with the two median puncta 

 of the fore wings each marked by a deep brown blotch, in the 

 same manner as is often exhibited in the under side of another 

 species, V. xanthomelas. On the upper side of the fore wings 

 the puncta are large and conspicuous; the inner marginal blotch 

 is, however, obsolete. I suggest for this aberration the name 

 ab. suhtuspuncla (female). 



Fig, 3, for which the varietal name ab. magtiilunulata,F\,yni'., 

 appears appropriate, has a yellowish ground colour, and the 

 lunules are sometimes greenish. I reared three specimens of 

 this variety, which were all females, and I am inclined to think 

 that this form with the broad, almost trapeze-shaped blue spots 

 is in truth a "female variety," and perhaps the same may be 

 said of fig. 4. 



The ground colour of fig. 4 is brownish with shining light 

 blue lunules. I have also reared this form with violet markings, 

 and sometimes groups of white scales form conspicuous spots 

 among the violet or blue scales of the lunules. In the ocellus 

 of the hind wings in V. iu occasionally white spots or streaks 

 appear in a somewhat similar manner, and three of thes-e spots 

 aie there so placed that they evidently form a continuation of 

 the chain of white spots already present on the fore wings, 

 which sometimes is made complete by an extra spot near the 

 inner angle. 



Fig. 5, female, with crescent shaped lunules is associated 

 with a fiery red or rich orange ground colour, and all the finest 

 specimens I reared were females. 



Fig. 6, female, has violet lunules, and only on one hind 

 wing do the anal lunules coalesce as depicted. Fig. 1 shows a 

 transitory form in a male ; in transitory females no points 

 protrude from the lunules, but instead they are separated by a 

 narrow black line, the "lean to " of the lunules being quite diffe- 

 rent. Such transitory females occur sometimes with lunules 

 shaped as in fig. 2. 



In other specimens the two largest median lunules tend to 

 coalesce, and on the fore wings, at the apex, broad square blue 



