LINNEAN TYPES OF PAL^AECTIC EHOPALOCEEA. 189 



the following species, he seems to have overlooked some facts on \vhichj|I 

 wish to lay particular stress. 



Lyc^na IDAS [1761], This insect is not marked by Linnseus in his copy 

 of the XII. edit, of Syst. Nat., because he only quotes it in that work as a 

 synonym of argus. There exist, however, two specimens which are nnmis- 

 takably Linnean. The one which now bears his label is a female with wings 

 entirely brown and one fulvous lunule near anal angle. It is unfortunately 

 one of those specimens of this sex which it is very difficult, if not impossible, 

 to refer with certainty to arc/its or to its near ally. I am personally more 

 inclined to consider it as belonging to the latter rather than to the former. 

 The other Linnean specimen is a most typical female of the species for which 

 Staudinger has proposed the name of argyrognomon, Bergstr., and further- 

 more, curiously enough, it belongs to the blue form of that sex for which the 

 name argyrognomon was published, and which Staudinger proposed to name 

 callarga. The basal half of the wings is entirely blue, and they bear very 

 prominent fulvous marginal lunules. 



Turning our attention to the Linnean literature on the subject, we first 

 find the name idas in ' Fauna Suecica ' given as " nomen triviale '^ to the 

 insect which Linnpeus had already described before he took to the binomial 

 nomenclature, and in the " nomen specificum^^ of which he clearly stated 

 that the wings were blue with rufous marginal lunules. This brief descrip- 

 tion he transcribes in all his following works when quoting idas. Curiously 

 enough, in the somewhat more lengthy one which follows it, there is an 

 open contradiction, as it is stated that the wings are entirely brown. It 

 seems to me that the " nomen specificum ^' from every point of view ought 

 to be considered as the original description of idas, the more so seeing that we 

 have before us the striking fact of the existence of the specimen for which 

 the name was created. 



Thus we are led to the conclusion that even if the brown specimen 

 is a female of argus, it is the blue one which ought to be considered as 

 the type of idas ; and we can definitely settle the question regarding the 

 names of the two species in a very satisfactory manner by discarding the 

 long-debated name of wgon, as was suggested by Staudinger, and by re- 

 establishing the Linnean name of idas in the place of argyrognomon, which, 

 for several good reasons, had not been favourably accepted by most ento- 

 mologists as specific. 



In any case it will be found necessary to alter the name idas given by 

 Rambur to a Spanish species of the same genus, and it might be dedicated 

 to its author under that of ramhuri. 



*Lyc^na aeion [1758]. The Linnean specimens consist of a darkish 

 male and of a much lighter coloured female. 



