110 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



of it. Of the transitional individuals some can be described as form 

 pulcherrima trans ad ochsenheimeri, the rest as form ochsenheimeri 

 trans ad puleherrima. 



Subspecies or group of races stoechadis, Borkh. : — 

 Before describing the different races I must make one or two 

 general remarks, which will help to understand the way they are 

 linked to each other. To begin with let us note that in the female sex 

 of this subspecies there exists what might nearly be called a 

 dimorphism, because the extremes of its variation have very different 

 aspects indeed ; the interesting point is that they correspond to sub- 

 species filipendulae and stoechadis, just as these correspond on a still 

 more magnified scale to the extreme variations of the entire genus. 

 One of these forms can be described simply by saying it is identical to 

 pulcherrima ; what obliges us to classify it amongst the stoechadis, even 

 when it is found alone as in race calabra, or it prevails, is that it is 

 not accompanied by any male of the same form, that sex consisting 

 entirely of most perfect ochsenheimeri. It is well represented by that 

 figure on pi. 5 of Seitz' Grossclmtett, vol. ii., which is, as we shall 

 see presently, wrongly named " hadjina" ': size usually very large, 

 wings elongated and acuminated, scaling less thick than in the 

 stoechadis which are really characteristic, colouring less saturated both 

 in the dark and in the red markings, red spots of forewing very large, 

 sixth spot usually blended with fifth and also projecting outwardly 

 very much, dark margin of hindwing extremely thin, being limited to 

 the fringes and of perfectly uniform breadth, red suffusion of the 

 underside of forewings about as extensive as is ever seen in filipendulae', 

 it will be found convenient to. name this form pulcherrimaefotmis; it 

 nearly invariably differs from pulcherrima by the tone of the red, 

 which is colder, lacking the slight tinge of yellow mixed with it in 

 the latter. . The other female form stands opposite to this one by 

 the shape of its wings, the dense scaling, the saturated and brilliant 

 colouring ; its markings vary in extent as much as it is possible in any 

 Zygaena, from a form which only differs from pulcherrimaeformis by 

 its structure, by its more limited spots on forewing and by its marginal 

 band of hindwing (slightly broader generally and widened particularly 

 at apex and between the cubital and the anal nervures), to the form 

 with only five spots on forewing and the hindwing nearly entirely 

 darkened. 



A bird's eye view of the geographical variations of subspecies 

 stoechadis is interesting : we find that the races one can call on the 

 whole melanic extend from the Maritime Alps to Piedmont and 

 Liguria, and thence along the chain of the Apennine at medium and 

 high altitudes, as far as the depression which unites the valleys of the 

 Metauro and that of the Tiber, and which marks the limit between the 

 Tertiary geological formation of the mountains up to that point and 

 their Jurassic one southwardly. The culminating point of melanism 

 is reached exactly in the mountains above Lucca and Pistoia in 

 northern Tuscany. Out of'tbis region of melanism, the extent of the 

 true pattern is seen to decrease progressively as one gets further from 

 it to the W. and to the S., so that the reddest races are found in the 

 W. of France and in Sicily, but to the N. the change is very abrupt in 

 the Po valley, as we have already seen. The Balkans I cannot deal 



