76 THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S RECORD. 
“Catalog.” Himer had proposed the name aestivus for the sammer- 
brood from Asia Minor, and I subsequently suggested the name 
sphyroides for the same brood from Italy, which is somewhat different 
from the former (‘‘ Rhopalocera Paleearctica,’’ p. 12); Seitz, in his 
“‘ Gross-Schmetterlinge,” repeated the same remark, but stated that the 
name asiatica, Mén., should be substituted for that of sphyrus for the 
summer-brood ; this could not be done, asiatica designating a very dis- 
tinct oriental race, transitional to hippocrates, Feld. 
It has however so happened that I was wrong too in proposing 
the name sphyroides, for I have lately discovered that the Sicilian sum- 
mer-brood has been named aestivus by Zeller, as far back as 1847, in a 
paper on Italian butterflies (p. 217), published in the “ Isis”’ for that 
year, a paper which seems to have been very much overlooked in litera- 
ture. Hence the name aestivus, Zeller, ought to beadopted. Ihopel 
have now collected all the facts concerning the Bearonin tions name 
sphyrus, and brought it to a definite conclusion. 
Having thus established the position of britannicus in the grouping 
of the machaon races and forms, I will add a few remarks concernine 
more particularly the object of this note. 
The English sphyrus specimens differ from the Sicilian ones as fol- 
lows :—This race generally is much smaller in size, although very large 
specimens do occur, and Seitz’s figure is drawn from one of the latter ; 
the tails of the hind-wing tend to shortness, and are often as short as. 
in the alpine race alpica, Verity; the ground colour of the wings is of 
a pale primrose-yellow, sometimes so pale as to be nearly white (pallida, 
Tutt), whereas in Sicily it is generally of a richer yellow than typical 
machaon ; the antimarginal band of the hind-wing tends to a peculiar 
shape, its hind-part becoming exceedingly broad, and containing an 
unusually large and brilliant orange ocellus; finally the inner margin 
of this band is not produced into sharp points, extending towards the 
cell, as is always the case in Sicilian sphyrus, and in machaon generally, 
but is simply undulated. Furthermore one may add that individual 
variation, carried to the highest possible degree in this species, is 
another feature of britannicus, so much so that next to the sphyrus 
form one finds, quite commonly, specimens of the form standing dia- 
metrically opposite to it, and resembling, by the reduction of all the 
black markings and consequent narrowness of the antemarginal hand, 
the aliaska, Scud., kamtschadalus, Alph., and lapponica, Verity, appear- 
ance. It would be interesting to compare series collected in different 
years in the different English | localities of the species, and to find out 
whether the two forms always occur together, or whether they con- 
stitute local races; this, however, does not seem probable, according to 
the latest information received by Mr. Bethune-Baker from his 
correspondents. 
I haye figured two britannicus of the sphyrus form in ‘‘ Rhopalocera 
Palaearctica” ; the one on pl. lvii. from §. Bailey (Wicken), in the 
Tring collection, is the specimen with the broadest antemarginal band 
I have ever seen; I have given this extreme individual form the name 
late-vittata, as a contrast to Spengel’s tenuivittata. It will be 
observed that although the band only just falls short of touching the 
discoidal lunule on the hind-wing, it does not in the least blend with 
it, whereas in aestivus, Zeller, whenever the band gets beyond a certain 
