THE BRITISH RACES OF BUTTERFLIES. 76 
It must, however, be borne in mind that it is but a few years since 
the necessity of revising original figures and descriptions, has made 
itself felt, on account of mistakes made by early naturalists, and 
carried on by their successors, and that we are consequently now in 
the very midst of this work; we can, however, reasonably hope it 
will very soon be completed, and that the past will soon be settled on 
a correct basis. To hasten this happy day we must all contribute to 
point them out, and especially must not interfere with each other’s work 
of revision, but take up readily every reasonable suggestion which may 
be made. It is with this aim that I have looked up all the latest sug- 
gestions with reference to British species, and I have endeavoured to 
summarise as shortly and clearly as possible the reasons for which 
they are made. 
N.B.—The names of British species, races, forms, etc., are printed 
in thick lettering (those amongst them which are new are also men- 
tioned in the headings of the paragraph which contains their descrip- 
tion); new names of insects not occurring in Britain are printed in 
interspaced lettering. 
I wish to thank Mr. G. T. Bethune-Baker, of Edgbaston, for the 
valuable information he has kindly given me concerning British races. 
Papilio machaon-—race britannicus, Spengel, in Jitt., Seitz., 
“« Gross-schmetterlinge der Hirde,” vol. i., p. 12, pl. 6d. (1907). 
Lord Rothschild in his catalogue of the species of the genus Papilio 
[Novitates Zoologicae, vol. ii., p. 262 (1895)] places the English 
machaon under the heading of sphyrus, Hubner. In the same year 
Himer, in his Artbildung und Verwandtschaft bei den Schmett., vol. i1., 
p- 102, pl. vi., fig. 8, describes and figures the first generation from 
Sicily under the same name. Both these authors were quite 
correct, and had evidently examined Hibner’s figure. Curiously 
enough, in. fact, English machaon from the north and the first 
generation of machaon irom the extreme south of Kurope (Sicily) and 
from Syria, etc., differ from the single-brooded machaon of northern 
Continental Kurope, to which Linneus’s nymo-typical race belongs, 
and from the very similar first generation of Central and Southern 
Europe by the same general characters, which are precisely those 
represented in Hiibner’s figure of sphyrus: broad short wings, black 
pattern very much developed, i.¢., antemarginal bands very broad, and 
nervulation of fore-wings heavily laden with black scaling ; moreover, 
Hiibner’s specimen undoubtedly belonged either to a single-brooded 
race or to the first brood, as is clearly shown by the black abdominal 
band and by the frontal tuft of hair; we may safely conclude, how- 
ever, that the latter hypothesis is the correct one, and feel pretty sure 
that the insect came from Sicily, as most specimens from this locality 
agree perfectly with the figure in every respect. Ma«ima, Blachier, 
from Morocco, and joannist, Verity, from Nulato (Alaska) [the latter 
standing diametrically opposite to the more generally known aliaska, 
Scud.], also agree, like britannicus, in a general way, with Hibner’s 
figure, but differ constantly from it by some minor features. 
It now seems nearly incredible how entomologists can have for 
years and years used the name sphyrws to designate the summer-brood 
of Southern Hurope. Staudinger took no notice of Himer’s correct 
view and went on printing this mistake in the last edition of his 
