SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 205 



Editors, without consulting me, added in : " (= lycaun, Rott.)." This 

 is not correct. Turati [Natiiralista Stciliann, XXI. (1909)], has 

 accurately worked out these Hyponepliele and shown that they are 

 specifically distinct ; in their extreme races {lycaon race libanotira, 

 Stdgr., and lupinus race rhamnitsia, Frr.), they have very different 

 [genitalia and androconia, besides other differential characters ; they in- 

 habit totally different grounds (barren summits and woods, respectively), 

 and they are both found in Sicily. The race intermedia, Stdgr., belongs 

 to liipiHKs, but decidedly comes nearer lycaon than does rhavinKsia, and 

 resembles it also in its habits. Several races of each species have been 

 described, and they form two diverging series, the extremes of which 

 are found, as stated, in the same region (Sicily) ; intermedia, however, 

 is not a real transition, for it keeps well on the lupinus side, except for 

 its haunts and superficial resemblance. I have found that the insect 

 of the Florentine hills is intermedia, Stdgr,, described from specimens 

 of W. Asia, but found also in the Balkans and perhaps even in Spain, 

 so that its occurrence in Italy is not surprising. Seitz in Gross- 

 schmett. der Erde, figures under the name of lupimis a male and female 

 which exactly answer the Tuscan intermedia, but not the nymotypical 

 lupinus of the forests of Terra d' Otranto (Guagnano) transitional 

 between intermediate and rhanmusia ; he then figures and describes 

 intermedia in such a way that it does not differ in the least from the 

 preceding ; these blunders are most deplorable, especially in popular 

 books. Count Turati's excellent paper and plates should be consulted, 

 but I must point out that he uses the name rhamnusia for the 

 species, whereas lupinus has the priority, as stated by Staudinger, who 

 actually considered them synonymous. — H. Verity, M.D. 



Abraxas grossulariata ab. exquisita and ab. pulchra.- -Adverting 

 to my description of ab. exqimita of this wonderful species in your 

 columns last autumn (vol. xxx., p. 189), I may say that I bred five 

 examples last June of this extremely beautiful form. Of these one 

 only is a female, similar to last year's seven females, but that her 

 hindwings are not radiated. The other four are males, two with pure 

 white ground colour, the other two slightly buff and with bronze 

 radiations, being ab. exquisita-aenea. These all came from one family, 

 viz., 41.18, the father of which was an alhipalUata ex 3^ lacticolorx ? 

 fiavipalliata (of varleyata origin), and the mother an exquisita. I 

 think, therefore, that, whatever may be the origin of Mr. Porritt's 

 exquisita (if indeed his specimens are this), mine at any rate are, as I 

 opined in my original article, the products of varleyata, albipalliata, 

 and iochalcea (or lacticolor). Among other forms of varleyata that have 

 appeared with me during the last two years is one I call pulchra, and I 

 think the name is worthily bestowed on a form which is but slightly 

 less attractive than exquidta, in that it has no white cuneate blotches 

 on its outer margins. It resembles exquisitain its very broad white (or 

 fulvous) mantle, of about twice the width of that in varleyata. Also, 

 in my two new varieties the disc, which is large and striking, is 

 situated in a sort of (white) recess trenching upon the broad black 

 outer-marginal band. The latter, on reaching the costa, does not end 

 suddenly (as in varleyata), but is continued conspicuously for a short 

 space along the costa inwardly. Another striking difference is that, 

 whereas in varleyata there is no white on the underside except exactly 



