• FEB 6 ^917 



^^ AND ' " 



JOURNAL OF VARIATION, 



Vol. XXIX. No. 1. January 15th, 1917. 



The Races of Agriades coridon inhabiting the Albarracin Sierra 



and its vicinity. 



By W. G. SHELDON, E.E.S. 



In his paper in the November number of this magazine Dr. Chapman 

 raises the question whether the two races of Ai/riades coridon occurring 

 in this district interbreed, and mentions that since his visit there inter- 

 mediate forms have been taken by myself ; he further says, "they are 

 in any case so rare that I came across none of them. Were the two 

 forms one species, they ought to weld into one form with only occa- 

 sional aberrations approaching the present extreme forms." 



To take first Dr. Chapman's point of their rarity. At the time of 

 my visit in 1905 intermediates between the two forms were not by any 

 means rare. 



My companion, Mr. E. F. S. Tylecote, and myself reached Albar- 

 racin on July 26th, and stayed until August 6th. On our arrival we 

 found that Miss Fountains had been staying in the town for several 

 weeks, and she did not leave until considerably after the date of our 

 departure. 



Agriades coridon var. arragonensia was abundant and in good 

 condition during the whole of our stay, in two localities in the vicinity 

 of Albarracin ; one of these was in the Guadalaviar Gorge, some five 

 kilometres on the road leading to Teruel ; and the other was the hill 

 district known as Puerta de la Losilla, four kilometres south of the 

 town. Flying with swarms of typical arragonensis, mixing freely with 

 them, and easily distinguishable on the wing by their colour, were 

 certain males, the depth and tint of blue of which agreed closely with 

 typical A. coridoyi ; they had, however, the light outer margins to the 

 wings, with the ocelli showing on the upper side, which obtains in the 

 majority of typical var. arragonensis. I have two of these forms, and 

 I caught and rejected others that were damaged. Mr. Tylecote cap- 

 tured some, and Miss Fountaine at the date of our arrival had two or 

 three examples, and I saw her afterwards release at least one imperfect 

 one. 



All my specimens of this form were taken at La Losilla, and I 

 think Mr. Tylecote's were also, but certainly one or two of Miss Foun- 

 taine's were met with in the Guadalaviar locality. Altogether there 



January 15th, 1917. 



