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COMPARATIVE NOTES ON F. URTICM, L., var. 

 ICHNUSA, Bon., AND var. TURCICA, Stand. IS 

 F. URTIC.E, L., THE "REDDEST" FORM AMONG 

 ALL THE "TORTOISESHELL" VANESSIDiE ? 



By T. Reuss. 



1 2 la 2a 



After studying specimens of F. urtica: var. ichnasa from 

 Corsica and Sardinia, and of var. turcica from Greece and Asia 

 Minor for purposes of comparison with the more northern type 

 and with the many aberrations of the latter, I venture to offer 

 the following notes. 



Upper sides: — 1. Ground colour. In V. iirticce (a) pure or 

 reddish orange, male and female ; [h) brownish, yellowish orange 

 (tawny), male and female. In var, ichnusa (a) pure or reddish 

 orange {male, with slight puncta), the same colour as in urticce, 

 type, and not redder, mostly less red ; (b) pure orange, brownish 

 orange (tawny), male and female. In var. turcica the colour is 

 the same as in ichnusa, female, the reddish tinge, to which 

 urticce tends so often, is less marked ; in some specimens from 

 Amasia, for instance, the colour is often dulled. 



2. Yellow markings. In urticce the well-known yellow spots 

 are large, well-defined and light in colour, standing in strong 

 contrast with the ground colour. In var. ichnusa the spots are 

 reduced by the spread of the ground colour, and are more orange 

 than yellow, thus lessening the contrast with the ground colour 

 and enhancing the brightness of the latter. The var. turcica 

 exhibits these markings as described for ichnusa. The inner 

 marginal yellow spot is often quite obsolete in both varieties. 



3. Outer margins. Var. ichnusa, female, differs often from 

 the other forms by exhibiting a margin strikingly resembling 

 that in F. io ah.Jischeri, Stdfss. 



4. Black markings. F. urticce shows the black markings as 

 in figs. 2, 2a; the lined markings in fig. 2 indicate which parts 

 of the black spots fail to appear in var. ichnusa, male (with 

 indications of puncta, but these are not in the position of the 

 puncta in urticce — they are farther removed from the wing- 



