46 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S EECORD, 



on the Gulf of Spezia, quite near the seashore, I collected in August a 

 race consisting entirely of the unusual male form in which the black 

 marginal border is very wide on the hindwings and quite absent on the 

 forewings ; females very dark, with lunules nearly obliterated on upper- 

 side (race lunensis). Finally, I must mention the race found by Querci 

 on the Aspromonte range, in Calabria, at 1,200m.; it comes near the 

 large iherica, Tutt, of Spain, by its size, ranging up to 28mm., and also 

 by some specimens having a brilliant white underside, such as is com- 

 mon in Spanish races but rarely found in Italy, where the undersides 

 are nearly always white, but of a duller tone ; the black margin of the 

 male is very wide and distinctly alpine ; the lunules in females are very 

 limited, and even absent ; the premarginal black dots of underside have 

 no metallic pupils, or very indistinct ones. 



Pleheius idas, L.,^ race alpophila, mihi, race australissima, mihi, 

 and race apenninophila, mihi ; subspecies calliopis, Bsd., race callio- 

 PiDEs, mihi. — True idas, as distinguished from calliopis, Bsd., which 

 may be called a subspecies rather than a simple race, produces in 

 Tuscany a mountain race and a race of the plains. The first is a 

 transition to the alpine one, which Oberthiir described well, but 

 wrongly proposed to call alsus, Hlib., because the latter name was 

 created by Esper and given to an argiis of the race philonomus ; I 

 suggest to substitute it by alpophila, mihi. 



The race of the Apennines, as shown by a large series of the Fegana 

 valley, m. 500 (near Lucca), in my collection, belongs clearly to the 

 alpojjJiila mountain group by its distinctly brown underside, but it is 

 less dark on both surfaces ; the females have a limited blue area at 

 the base of the wings on the upperside. The race of the plains of 

 Central Italy has a white or light grey underside in the male ; the 

 colours are brighter in both sexes ; the female has large orange 

 lunules and the premarginal black spots of upperside are elongated as 

 in nevadensis, Obth., from Spain ; specimens with no blue scaling are 

 common ; it measures 25-28 mm. in expanse, whilst apenninophila, 

 just described, measures 23-25 mm. ; I propose the name austra- 

 lissima, taking as type the race of the Tuscan coast (Forte dei 

 Marmi). 



Oberthiir has shown that calliopis, Bsd., is a very distinct sub- 

 species, if not a species, and that it has, like idas, a mountain race 

 and a race of the plains ; the former he figures on pi. xxxix. and xlii. 

 of his Et. de Lep. Conip. ; a name being necessary to designate it, I 

 should call it calliopides. The Tuscan race which I have named 

 abetonica is very similar to Boisduval's French race of the plains, 

 although it flies at an altitude of 1,800 m. 



In October a few very small weakly specimens of idas sometimes 

 occur near Florence, evidently being precocious autumnal individuals 

 of the first brood (misera, mihi.). 



Lycaenopsis argioliis, L., race calidogenita, mihi, and race brit- 

 anna, mihi.^The nymotypical race is that of Northern and Central 

 Europe, with two broods, the second of which has been well described 

 by Fuchs under the name of i^arvijnmcta. In Southern Europe there 



* Pleheius afgus (argyrognomon). — G.W. 



