THE BRITISH RACES OF BUTTERFLIES. 129 
Melitaea athalia race britanna, Verity, Bulletino della Societa 
Entomologica Italiana, vol. xlv., p. 210 (1914).—The following is the 
translation of my original description :—“ To end up my observations 
on athalia, I wish to lay stress on the fact that the race of this species 
from the British Islands differs markedly from the continental ones, 
and especially from the southern races, for, whereas in the latter 
region it varies in the direction of magna, Seitz, and of dejoneformis, 
Verity, in the former one may say that the lighter individual varia- 
tions are similar to the races of Central Europe” (the nymotypical 
race is German), “and that all variation takes place in a diametrically 
opposite direction, tending to produce conspicuous melanitic forms ; 
individual variability is another of its most prominent characters. It 
is larger in size than the typical race; all the black bands are broad 
and diffused and of a very deep black ; the marginal band, very broad, 
is separated from the preceding one by fulvous spaces, which are con- 
siderably limited in extent, and which tend to lose, or have lost, their 
characteristic shape of lunules; on the contrary the fulvous spaces 
which separate the internal premarginal band from the external pre- 
marginal one, are very much wider, as the former is situated nearer to 
the central S-shaped band ; this is broader and straighter; the fulvous 
ground colour is dark and reddish; the whole surface of the wing has 
a dull look; the underside, on the whole, has a similar appearance ; 
suffice it to notice that the rust-coloured spots are of a dark-red and are 
surrounded by thick black arches, not sharply defined, but on the con- 
trary very diffused; the ground colour of the females varies from dark 
fulvous, like the males, to a yellowish tinge, quite similar to that of 
the high mountain form; lastly, the wings are broader in both sexes ; 
the apical and anal angle are, however, more acute and the external 
margin straighter. I pick out my typical couple of britanna from a 
series of specimens in my collection, collected in June at Tavistock, in 
south Devon.” 
Argynnis (Brenthis) selene, Schiff.This species varies very 
little geographically in Europe; specimens from the north of England 
and others from Piedmont (Turin) are exactly alike ; hela, Stdgr., from 
the extreme north, is the most marked variety. 
Argynnis (Brenthis) euphrosyne, Z.—Two very distinct races 
are met with in the north and south of Europe; the type belongs to 
the first and so does the British one; it is very much smaller, 
duller and darker than the second, which culminates in apennina, 
Stdgr., from Italy ; the underside of this latter is also on the hindwings 
of a mueh elearer and brighter orange colour (not rust-coloured, as 
most individuals of the nymotypical race). 
Argynnis adippe, L. (esperi, Verity).—I have exhaustively 
discussed, in the Linnean Society Journal, Zoology, vol. xxxii., p. 182 
(1918), and in the Entomologist’s Record, vol. xxvi., p. 175 (1914), this 
unique case of a common European species, which had remained un- 
named to the present day; Linnaeus having described the male and 
the female of A. niobe as distinct species under two different names, 
Esper took the second of these descriptions to be meant for niobe’s 
nearest European ally, and figured it under Linnaeus’s second name ; 
