NEW CLASSIFICATION OF CERTAIN HESPERIID BUTTERFLIES. 307 



As all collectors are aware, the " Black and White Skippers " 

 of the palfearctic region, especially those of the west, present 

 difficulties of identification which have been augmented to a 

 great extent by hopeless confusion of nomenclature. A certain 

 number of them, however, are easy enough to distinguish, and, 

 being so, have been allowed to retain their original names. 

 These are Hesperia sida, H. carthami, H. cacalice, H. andromedce, 

 and H. centaurece, and, so far as Great Britain is concerned, 

 H. malvcB (alveolus). But, as Dr. Eeverdin and M. Oberthiir 

 point out, it is quite another matter when we come to deal with 

 the alveus group, and the malvce fritillum forms. Superficially 

 alveiis, carlincB, cirsii, onopordi, and conyzcB may so closely 

 resemble one another in their markings and general appearance 

 as to defy separation at sight. Hitherto, therefore, authors 

 have been content to group each one of them from such differ- 

 ences of marking as examples under their immediate supervision 

 seemed to present: the majority, avoiding originality altogether, 

 have satisfied themselves with a repetition of the conclusions 

 arrived at by a few of their more conscientious and painstaking 

 predecessors. 



Speaking from experience, the idea of identification by means 

 of the genital armature has been rejected in the case of the 

 Hesperiids under the impression that, to make confusion worse 

 confounded, the structure of these organs varied with individuals 

 of the same species so much that differentiation thereby was un- 

 reliable. In the case of the several species under review, at all 

 events. Dr. Eeverdin disposes of any such objection in the 

 alveus group. Preparations of the appendages of several alveus 

 show that, inter se, the form of the armature may vary in detail, 

 but that it still retains specific characters distinguishing it from 

 the armature of others associated with the alveus group. Dr. 

 Eeverdin demonstrates, in fact, that the appendages of each 

 species present characteristic forms ; that they can be separated 

 thereby ; and that Eambur, who originally described cirsii, car- 

 lince, and onopordi as distinct from alveus, was right in his 

 classification, and that his diagnosis formed upon the appen- 

 dages themselves was correct in almost every instance, despite 

 the insufiicient and meagre scientific apparatus at his disposal. 

 For the author of the ' Catalogue des Lepidopteres de I'Anda- 

 lousie ' and the * Faune d'Andalousie ' was the first lepidopterist 

 to attempt the differentiation of species in the manner indicated, 

 and to publish the results of his observations with the drawings 

 of the butterflies themselves. Of conyzce, of course, Eambur 

 makes no mention, the insect, at the time when his books were 

 published, being still undiscovered.* It is worth noticing, how- 



■''■ Described by Guenee from examples taken at Voirons, Savoie, as a 

 new species, ' Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques,' 1877. 



