SEASONAL POLYMORPHISM. 175 



appearance, instead of being deep black or dark brown above ; fulvous 

 lunules absent or scarcely perceptible. I take tbis occasion to mention 

 that the race found by Querci in Calabria, both at S. Fili and on the 

 . Aspromonte, differs in nothing from the usual nymotypieal one, as 

 figured by Esper ; fulvous lunules very prominent above in females. 



Plebeius instdaris, Leech [Butt. China, ii., p. 302, pi. xxxi., fig. 5 

 and 8 (Jan., 1893)] ; race praeterinsularis, mihi. ; race calabricola, 

 mini. ; race aegusella, mihi. — Readers may be surprised at seeing 

 this name applied to a European species, as it has till now only been 

 used for Leech's nymotypieal race of the Plebeius from Hakodate in 

 the Island of Yesso (Japan). It seems to me, however, tbat the rules 

 of the right of priority obliges us to use it in the place of the name 

 li/jurica created by Courvoisier in 1910 [Ent. Zeit. Stuttgart, p. 81, 

 and Iris, 1911, p. 103, pi. ii., fig. 1] for a Lugano specimen, and used 

 in the same year by Oberthiir [Et. Lep. Comp., iv., p. 201, pi. xli., 

 figs. 291-297], who says he received it under this name from 

 Cassarata. Oberthiir himself notes that it is " an intimate ally of 

 Leech's Japanese race," but that it is not quite identical with it. The 

 studies of the genitalia and androconial scales by Reverdin, Courvoisier 

 and Chapman, published by Oberthiir [Et. Lep. Comp., xiv.] in 1917, 

 do not in any way give one the impression that instdaris and ligurica 

 can be distinct species. I can now add that a new race, discovered by 

 Querci in June, 1920, on the Calabrian Coast Range (S. Fili, m. 900), 

 makes it seem quite impossible that a specific difference should ever 

 be shown to exist. This truly magnificent race of large size (27-30mm.) 

 exhibits in fact to their highest degree the features which distinguish 

 the Japanese races from the other European races : on the underside 

 the black markings are all very extensive, especially the premarginal 

 spots and lunules, which are not sharply outlined, but slightly 

 shadowed ; the former are entirely covered with vivid metallic scales ; 

 between them is a very broad continuous orange band on both fore- 

 and hindwing, of a very warm, reddish-orange ; the white spaces 

 preceding the black lunules are nearly entirely obliterated by the dark 

 scaling ; in female, also on upperside, the orange lunules are very 

 large and so is the black spot they contain ; both are strongly 

 elongated and end in a sharp point. This sex differs from instdaris, 

 a's described and figured by Leech, it being only exceptionally and 

 very limitedly powdered with blue above, but it is perfectly identical 

 with June Japanese specimens I possess and to Oberthiir's figure 306. 

 The male differs from Leech's in being of a particularly deep purple, 

 instead of "pale silvery-blue," and in having the black marginal 

 streak more accentuated. Oberthiir's male, from Yokohama, fig. 305, 

 is intermediate in colour and has a much narrower streak than 

 calabricola. This race is so strikingly different from Leech's, I think 

 it ought to be named and I should call it praeterinstdaris, taking 

 Oberthiir's figures as "types." Some individuals from Calabria are 

 quite similar to the Chinese couple figured by Oberthiir (fig. 291-2), 

 which might be called praeterinsularis trans, ad lipurica. ~1 In Europe 



-five races are known for the present : calabricola, Vrty., from Calabria; 

 ligurica, Courv., from Northern Italy (I have collected it in Turin 

 too) ; latialis, Rostagno [Boll. Soc. Zool. It:, xi., p. 50 (1911)] 



.( = mira, Vrty.), the much smaller (24-26mm.) race of Central Italy; 



