242 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



size) asteria ; aurelia also, though by no means exclusively a 

 mountain species, approaches this group very closely, another 

 indication of its nearness to varia. Next to these comes 

 dictynnoides, also a more or less mountain species ; whilst 

 mountain athalia are darker than those of the plain, northern 

 parthenie than Italian, and berisalensis than typical deione. The 

 finest and lightest species are dictynna, parthenie (Italian), and 

 hritomartis, but, whilst britomartis looks somewhat thicker than 

 dictynna, the nervures of the former are apt to melt away to 

 some extent with the action of the chemicals used for removing 

 the scales, in a way which I have not noticed in any other 

 species. It may be remarked here that while superficially the 

 resemblance between asteria and merope is sometimes very close, 

 yet the neuration (especially with regard to the point of de- 

 parture of ii^ in the fore wing) connects the former definitely 

 with the athalia-, and the latter as definitely with the aurinia- 

 group ; in the same way, the form of the discoidal cell of the 

 hind wing shows that we are right in placing deione with this 

 group rather than with the group typified by cinxia. 



To take the nervures, so far ^s they are distinctive, one by 

 one :— Fore wing : i does not really offer any distinction, always 

 reaching the costa without any upward curve ; for, though I 

 have found one specimen of athalia in which it anastomoses 

 with ii^, and another in which it nearly does so, this seems to be 

 due in both cases to the position of iij. 



iii runs almost absolutely parallel with i in parthenie, dic- 

 tynnoides, deione (type), generally in berisalensis, and occasionally 

 in varia ; it approaches i very gradually and almost con- 

 tinuously in asteria, and generally in varia ; in aurelia it ap- 

 proaches i very slightly and gradually, and turns equally 

 slightly and gradually away again ; in dictynna it approaches 

 rapidly and turns off gradually ; in britomartis its position is 

 between that of aurelia and that of dictynna ; in athalia it ap- 

 proaches more closely, generally much more closely, to i, some- 

 times to the point of actual anastomosis. 



The point of departure of ii^ from the main stem of ii varies 

 in different specimens of the same species, but is generally 

 somewhat further from the base in athalia than in others ; 

 dictynna is perhaps the most variable, but the branch is gene- 

 rally rather high up, sometimes close to the top corner of the 

 discoidal cell, though sometimes rather low down ; in britomartis 

 the position is also variable, but is generally rather low down, 

 and never, so far as I have seen, very high up. 



ii2-ii5 offer no distinctive characters in this group. 



Traces of the main stem of iii, with its first bifurcation about 

 half-way up the cell, which are very distinct in merope 2 , are 

 visible in this group in asteria, parthenie, and dictynna, and very 

 slightly in dictynnoides. In dictynna, and possibly in britomartis, 



