«". 2 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



-:^o 



must have been ten or a dozen examples of this form seen or captured 

 by the three of us. 



In addition to the above described forms, there was quite a number 

 of males which were intermediate in colour between them and typical 

 var, arrafionemis. Of the thi'ee or four dozen male A. coridon that I 

 brought away from Albarracin, speaking from memory, I should say 

 that these were about a dozen in number ; I have several of them at 

 present in my series. 



Of the typical var. Idspana only one example was met with in the 

 neighbourhood of Albarracin by the three collectors. This was taken 

 by myself, alongside the banks of the Guadalaviar, about one kilo- 

 metre nearer Albarracin than the locality for var. arraijonensis, on 

 August 4th. Its behaviour was very different from that which is usual 

 with the species, which generally flies backwards and forwards over a 

 very limited extent of ground, frequently settling on flowers. " It was 

 flying swiftly, at a height of several feet, down the gorge towards the 

 arragonensh locality, not hesitating in any way, nor stopping at flowers 

 or other attractions ; it impressed me at the time as behaving like an 

 insect that was impelled by some migratory instinct, or one that had 

 lost its parent colony and was anxious to find another as soon as pos- 

 sible. It is not by any means a fresh specimen, and the left inferior 

 is torn and has a portion missing. 



With regard to Dr. Chapman's second point, that were the two 

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

 sional aberrations. This would I think depend upon circumstances. 

 If there are two colonies occupying practically the same ground, the 

 individuals of one colony mingling and pairing freely with those of the 

 other, one would expect that in the process .of time one form would 

 become common to both colonies, but if there are colonies of the two 

 forms some little distance apart, and they do not mingle freely — and 

 of course A. coridon is a species which has colonies over an extent of 

 an acre, or even less, and one can find them abundant in this area year 

 by year, whereas there is hardly a specimen to be found outside this 

 area for a distance of many miles — but occasional examples of one 

 form mingle and pair with the opposite sex of the other form, then I 

 should expect to see a limited number of intermediates ; and if the two 

 forms were one species, and fertile, then I should expect to find speci- 

 mens exhibiting characters between the intermediate and the prevalent 

 form, which would be the result of further crossiiigs. 



Now let us see what evidence there is in support of the view that 

 the specimens taken by Miss Fountaine, Mr. Tylecote, and myself, at 

 Albarracin, which were intermediate in colour between var. arra(/onensis 

 and Jikpana, were the results of crossing between the two forms. I 

 think that without any other evidence than the laws of probability, 

 there is strong reason to believe the}^ were. However, there is I think 

 very good evidence in support of my contention which has been sup- 

 plied by Dr. Chapman himself. 



In his account of the expedition which he made to the Albarracin 

 district in 1901, he says (see Ent. Becord, vol. xiv., p. 119), " The two 

 forms of A. corydon taken, the violet coloured form cori/doniiis (= var. 

 hispana), and the pale var. hhpana (= var. arragonensis), are very dis- 

 tinct, and no intermediate specimens were observed. They occurred 

 on the same ground to some extent at Albarracin, hut in reality they 



