146 THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 
two races: one in Central and one in §. Europe. The proportion 
between the numbers of the various individual forms varies however a. 
creat deal in the different localities and changes distinctly the aspect 
of series of specimens from each, so that several seconDaRy races are 
discernible in both the primary ones mentioned above. As elassifica- 
tion is mostly conventional and only a practical way of memorising the 
complexity of facts (so much so that even a satisfactory definition of 
“ species ’’ has not yet been given), I think the terms of “ primary,” 
“secondary,” etc., races or groups of races can very well be used to 
express the successive subdivisions which are met with in nature in 
certain species, when regions gradually lesser in extent are considered, 
such as in this case; the term “subspecies” J should restrict to 
particular groups of races which only just fall short of the definite 
eroup we call ‘‘species’’; species axiomatically are supposed never to 
blend, subspecies sometimes blend, races always blend (see “ Intro- 
duction’ to Rhopalocera palaearctica). 
(a) The race or group of races of Central Europe is distinguished 
by its elongated and pointed wings, with the external margin straighter, 
by its fringes of a purer white, by the more or less frequent occurrence 
of the individual form with no orange lunules above, which is never 
found in the South, by the average lesser extent of these lunules, by 
the underside nearly invariably grey, vaguely tinted with fulvous, and 
thus much less variable than in the South except in aestiva and in 
gallica ; it only has one or two generations. 
The nymotypical individual form is one of small size, “with the 
upperside entirely brown” and no orange lunules, described presumably 
from the second brood (July) of Berlin. The extreme opposite- 
individual form is agestis, W.V. (‘‘types”’ from Vienna), “ with 
complete border of spots,” to use the words in the original description ; 
astrarche, Brgst., is a synonym of this. The group of races of Central 
Europe consists in these two forms and in all the intermediate 
gradations, including semi-allous, Harrison [Ent. Rec., xvili., p. 236 
‘(1906)] (‘‘types”’ from Durham) with “the row of red spots above 
becoming obsolete,’ but otherwise ‘‘ as in P. astrarche.” According to 
localities one of these forms predominates and gives series of specimens 
a characteristic aspect, which may be designated by the name of that. 
form. A fourth race makes its appearance when the second generation 
acquires a distinctly different look from the first, owing to the under- 
side being markedly fulvous in tinge. Staudinger has given [ Hor. Soc. 
Ent. Ross., vii., p. 52 (1871)] the name “ aestiva meridionalis to those 
specimens of the second brood of Greece and of the rest of 8. Europe, 
especially of female sex, which have the underside of a deep grey- 
brown colouring.’ Staudinger in his Catalog of 1901 makes of his 
aestiva a synonym of calida. Rihl keeps it distinct and gives Baden 
and Haute Garonne amongst its localities. Tutt notes that Staudinger 
does not mention the broad orange lunules of upperside, which are a 
characteristic of calida, so that his name can quite well be adopted 
for summer specimens with lunules not extensive, which are much 
more abundant in the South than might seem from Staudinger’s 
words, which is not rare in the warmer parts of Central Hurope 
and which reaches, as a rare aberration, even the North of England. 
I should call aestiva the race in which this form is abundant in the 
second brood, even if still mixed with agestis, and in which gallica 
