100 



for the longitudinal spot to become obsolete or to lose its cream 

 cincture earlier than any other spots, the other outer spot losing its 

 pale cincture before the second pair. In two of the small Bourg 

 St. Maurice specimens there is a tendency for the spots to be 

 connected by pale cream-coloured nervure lines ; there is also a 

 tendency to develop an orange patch at the base of the hind-wings. 



Another local race is called by Staudinger var. grceca. This he 

 confines to "Greece, Asia Minor and Syria." The diagnosis — 

 "maculis rubris anguste albo-annulatis ; abdomine annulo rubro" — 

 is perhaps hardly applicable to any of our forms, but some have 

 narrow red spots, and the circumscription is nearly as much white 

 as yellow. 



One aberration of Staudinger's we do not seem to have captured 

 or noticed ; this is Y.'i'^Qx''~>flaveola. I have not seen Esper's figure, 

 and Staudinger's diagnosis, "aberratio flava," is very vague. Does 

 it mean the ordinary red spots are entirely yellow? If so, although 

 we got some where the red was reduced very much, we evidently 

 failed to take this form. 



A local race, named wiedemamiii by Menetries, occurs in Turkey 

 with the abdomen entirely red — " abdomine toto rubro " is 

 Staudinger's description of this variety. 



A very interesting species, it must be confessed, is this insect to 

 the naturalist, whether he be hunting it on the Swiss mountain 

 sides ; watching its brilliant beauty as he laves his hands in a cold, 

 cold glacier stream or lies in lazy enjoyment beneath the larches ; or 

 even if he be in his study trying to unravel one of the many riddles 

 which Nature is always presenting to us among these variable 

 children of her beautiful creation, and which this charming species 

 in no wise lacks when we make it the object of serious study. 



Zygsena achillese, Esp., and its varieties. 



By J. W. TuTT, F.E.S. Read November Mi, 1894. 



In my paper on Zygcena carniolica, I referred to the excellent 

 morality which, so far as Dr. Chapman and myself were able to 

 observe, existed among the Zygcznas in those charming clearings 

 among the larch woods at Courmayeur. Not that some of them 

 did not come under suspicion as a result of our somewhat close 

 inspection and general examination of their morals, but so far as 

 our observation went we saw no case of inter-crossing among the 

 various species. 



The insect about which we were most in doubt was perhaps 

 Zygcena achillecB, which, from its great general resemblance to Z. 

 pilosellce {f!ii?ios), and on the other hand its nearer approach to a five- 

 spotted insect, led us to suppose that our first captures were in some 



