1889. | 4^3 



and having a black central spot, with a white pupil in three of the five, the one at 

 the anal angle has two minute black dots, each with a white spot, and the second of 

 the row has no black centre. 



The butterfly which approaches nearest to this in my collection 



was taken by me at Zermatt, and certainly if one be Masra, the other 



must go with it, they must stand or fall together. 



Its alar expanse is 44 mm. The upper wings exactly resemble the last, save 

 that the posterior border of the fulvous line is not parallel to the border, but has a 

 series of outward curves, one between each vein ; the under wings have three black 

 spots with white pupils, and a very small one at the anal angle. On the inferior 

 surface, also, the resemblance is nearly exact, save that in the tipper wing the large 

 ocellus is supplemented, both above and below, by a very minute black spot with a 

 white centre, and the posterior border is certainly rather broader ; the lower wings 

 are brown with darker lines, as in the other, but the lighter part is not so clearly 

 marked, except at its commencement ; and there are six ocelli, each with a black 

 spot and a central white pupil, save in the ocellus at the anal angle, where, as before, 

 two minute dots take the place of the single larger one, each, however, having the 

 central white pupil as before. 



Very different from this is the smallest genuine male Mara, taken 



out of a large series in my cabinet. 



Though the large ocellus in the upper wing has a single pupil above, yet, on 

 the inferior surface it has two white pupils, and the lower wings are of an ashy- grey 

 beneath and not brown; the arrangement of the ocelli is the same as in the Zermatt 

 specimen ; this example came from the Visp Valley. It would seem to me that many 

 of the June examples of Hiera taken in the Komsdale present a far nearer approach 

 to Mara, or rather to the var. Adrasta, than this Bergen specimen ; in a female 

 Hiera, from the Romsdale, and a female Adrasta there is absolutely no difference 

 whatever on the superior surface, except in the intensity of the colour, the basal 

 two-thirds of the upper wing in the German insect being tawny, whereas the 

 Norwegian butterfly is brown, in the lower wing also the Norwegian specimen is of 

 a richer and deeper brown, and it is also slightly larger in size (50 mm., the Adrasta 

 48 mm.) ; what has been said of the upper surface maybe also said of the lower, save 

 that in the Adrasta the under wings have a greyer tint. 



These spring forms of Hiera in Norway have added much to the 

 growing conviction in my mind that it is utterly impossible to draw 

 any distinct and permanent line (unless it be found in the generative 

 organs, which I have not examined) between the perfect insects in the 

 three species Mcera, Hiera, and Megcera. The shape of the wing is no 

 help. In the male the posterior border is straight in all, in the female, 

 curved outwards ; size and colour certainly give us no reliable guide, 

 and, indeed, I know of none. This seems a strange doctrine to an 

 Entomologist in Britain, where Megcera has become so fixed and stable 

 a species, and so little subject to variation ; but a large series of 

 European specimens has seemed to me conclusive on the point. 



Caenonym'pha PampMlus — common, and in no way differing from 

 British forms. 



