SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE ON HESPERIID CLASSIFICATION. 5 



horizontal to its transcarina, which in both sexes is centrally 

 interrupted by a laterally carinate longitudinal area, and then 

 abruptly declived ; on either side of this central area the 

 metanotum is not smooth, but finely shagreened, in both sexes ; 

 the wings are even less clouded than those of the female, with 

 costa piceous but nervures testaceous ; the stigma is not uni- 

 colorous but, exactly as in the female, large and nigrescent piceous 

 with its basal third pure white (= " stigmate latissimo, fusco 

 puncto pallido " — Hal.); the second cubital cell is subparallel- 

 sided and neither triangular nor constricted towards the radial 

 nervure ; abdomen longer than thorax. Length, 11 mm. 



The insect is closely allied to Meteorus obfuscatus, so fre- 

 quently bred from the heteromerous beetle, Orchesia micanSy in 

 dry Boleti on elm and other large trees. 



A SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE ON HESPEEIID 

 CLASSIFICATION. 



By H. Rowland-Brown, M.A., F.E.S. 



The 'Entomologist,' vol. xliii. pp. 306-9, contains "A Note 

 on the New Classification of certain Hesperiid Butterflies," rela- 

 tive to the researches of Dr. J. L. Reverdin and M. Charles 

 Oberthiir, in which, inter alia, I drew attention to the difficulty 

 of separating the malvce-fritillum forms. Dr. Reverdin has now 

 most kindly furnished me with an extract from the * Bulletin de 

 la Soc. lepid. de Geneve ' (vol. ii. fasc. 2, August, 1911), in 

 which he gives the results of his completed investigations on this 

 particular subject. 



A close examination of long series leads him to the conclu- 

 sion that, superficially, Hesperia malvce, and the insect which we 

 have known hitherto as H. fritillum, Rambur, are practically 

 inseparable. It is only when we come to compare the male 

 appendages that we are conscious of a complete specific differ- 

 ence ; but there are one or two points also of structure and 

 habit, which, pending a complete life-history ol fritillum, Rbr,, 

 may assist us to differentiate these perplexing little butterflies. 

 I take the liberty, therefore, to epitomize Dr. Reverdin's several 

 experiments ; but, as a preliminary, repeat what I have already 

 explained in my paper on the species met with by me in the 

 Basses-Pyr6nees (Entom. vol. xliv. p. 335), that fritillum, Rbr., 

 is henceforth to be known as malvoides, Elwes and Edwards 

 (c/. "A Revision of the Oriental Hesperidse," Trans. Zool. Soc. 

 xiv. 1898) :— 



Size: Malvoides ordinarily larger than malvce (but not invariably). 

 Shape of wings : Fore wings of malvoides more pointed, and relatively 

 less broad ; malvcB appears more compact {ramasse). 



