43 



■with the specimens in our possession, suggested ma,rked 

 differences which a careful examination of Chapman's 

 material intensified, whilst his comparisons with other 

 forms (for almost all of which he apparently used er- 

 roneous names), left one with no clear idea as to what 

 he was describing. Whilst we were recently at work 

 on the subject, we received from Eeverdin the MS. 

 of a description of a form that ho called constanti. The 

 three forms thus known to us appeared to present 

 several broad characters in common, and to differ 

 merely in detail, although these details might be con- 

 sidered important. We were unable to refer the spe- 

 cimens in the long series of meridionalis in our collection 

 en bloc to either rezniceki or constanti, indeed, our exam- 

 ples appeared to cover the different ground claimed 

 by each, and to exhibit considerable and marked vari- 

 ation inter se. We are, at present, very dissatisfied 

 with our knowledge of the specialisation and locali- 

 sation of these forms, and suspect that, when the same 

 collector in the same season gets lengthy series from 

 Hj'^ères, Draguignan, Ste. Maxime, Pardigon, Nice, 

 Monte Carlo, Bordighera, and Kapallo, and institutes 

 a careful comparison, a good deal of overlapping will 

 be found to occur ; for what appear to be serious dif- 

 ferences in colour, in spotting, etc., when the comparison 

 of specimens from any one of these places is made with 

 utterly different races of the species from far-away 

 countries, may quickl}^ disappear when the allied races 

 are brought in series into juxtaposition. Bartel's com- 

 parison of rezniceki with the specialised races from 

 Spain and Asia Minor, with which they have nothing 

 in common, is futile; almost equally so is the comparison 

 of these forms with Swiss examples. To determine 

 their value as local races, they want comparing with 

 one another, and with the A. coridon of other parts 

 of Southern France and mid- Italy, where under appro- 

 ximately similar conditions, similar forms are more 

 likely to be found. Both Bartel and Eeverdin make 

 much of the specialisation of the upperside ^ colour 

 of the forms they describe, j'et this appears to be almost, 

 or quite, identical with that of our meridionalis, and 

 these latter again, are hardly distinguishable in this 

 respect from the (J s from Digne, Grésy-sur-Aix, the 

 Verdon Valley, etc. We therefore give the descriptions 

 of these forms, and leave it to the future to discover 

 how far they are racial and why. We may add that 

 as a result of a lengthy correspondence Eeverdin sug- 

 gests that the the general racial form meridionalis 

 breaks up into two sections locally that may be recog- 

 nised as — var. yneridionalis, (a) forma rezniceki (pale 

 underside, etc.); (&) forma constajiti (dark underside, etc.). 



K. var. meridionalis (-vernalis), Tutt. ,,Ent. Rec", xxi- 

 p. 299 (1909); ,,Proc. Ent. See. Lond.", p. Ixxx (1909)- 

 Corydon, Tutt, ,,Ent. Rec", xvii., p. 215 (1905). — S. 

 Rather smooth, delicate, but dull, silvery-blue in colour; 

 margin of forewings variable. $ with deep grey-brown 

 underside. Tlie spring form of the Riviera race (from 

 Ilyères, Draguignan, Ste Maxime, etc.) ,(Tutt, Ent. Rec, 

 xxi., p. 299). "Of a pale silvery-blue colour, the ground 

 tint quite indistinguishable from that of a very long series 

 of examples taken at Grèsy-sur-Aix and other localities in 

 Southern France (in July and August), varying somewhat 

 in glossiness, but apparently never of the bright blue tint 

 not uncommon in specimens found in Britain, the Swiss 

 valleys (Val d' Kerens, etc.), the French Pyrenees, Fon- 

 tainebleau Forest, and most other Central European loca- 

 lities; the somewhat dull appearance in some examples due 

 to a thinness of scaling on the outer discal area of the 

 wings, a feature further intensified when the specimens are 

 a little worn; a darkening of the discoidal lunule in the 

 forewings is marked in 42 o s, against 18 o s that do not 

 show it, but in some of the 42 it is so faint as to be hardly 



t discernible. The dark margin of the forewings is on the 

 whole wide, but varies from the almost linear {aiujusti- 

 \ 



mnrgo) form to the extreme wide (marginala) form, in 

 which it extends over the outer third of the wing and 

 along the costa to the discoidal lunule; the pimdala form 

 is rare- the divisn form the most coninion, a pale grey or 

 whitish lividing line (representing the outer margin of the 

 obsoletcly developed internciiral ocellated spots) passing 

 though the wide marginal band from the costa to the 

 inner margni; on the hindwings the marginal band may 

 consist merely of a row of well-developed, clearly-defmed, 

 pale-cinctured, bhick spots, whilst, in others, they are con- 

 tained in awide black margin that extends some distance 

 towards the disc of the wing, and on its inner edge lornis 

 a series of dark united lunules. The colour of the under- 

 side of the (? s is somewhat variable, that of the forewings 

 usually dark grey (reminding one of that of A. Ihelis), 

 that of the hindwings with a slight tinge of brown m addi- 

 tion; the black spots (including the discoidal of forewing) 

 well-developed, the margins pure white, the marginal ocella- 

 tions strongly developed, surmounted by strong blackish- 

 grev chevrons on the forewings, and by weak fulvous ones 

 on "the hindwings; in other examples the grey ground is 

 suffured with whitish over the discal area of the forewings, 

 leaving it, however, sufficiently grey for the white rmgs 

 of the ocellated spots to show well, whilst on the hindwings 

 the marginal chevrons are surmounted by white, giving 

 a somewhat mottled appearance; the fulvous crescents, 

 too are somewhat brighter; in others, again, the ground 

 colour of the forewings is almost blackish grey, the hmd- 

 wings with a considerable amount of brown m the ground 

 tint; a few are paler grey, and both in tint and spottmg 

 very like typical Central European A. condon; only-6an:ie 

 6 ,^ s out of 60 <J s are of the whitish, mottled form des- 

 cribed above, although others are near enough to be difli- 

 cult to determine as to whether they should be placed here 

 or not The spotting of the underside comprises examples . 

 of cinnus, Gerh., juncta (via addenda), sennarmaia, etc. 

 The 9 s are deep fuscous brown in colour, resembling m 

 their brownness ? s from Susa (Piedmont), the $ s of var. 

 hispana, and being decidedly less blackish-fuscous than 

 the usual Central European $ forms; they vary much in 

 the development of the marginal lunules, and include the 

 forms siibaurantia, peraurantia, and auranlia. The short 

 black discoidal of the forewings is well-marked, there is 

 not one noticeable on the hindwings, and there is no blue 

 scahng. The underside of the $ s is very dark grey-brown, 

 the hindwings scarcely, if any, browner than the tore- 

 wings; the spots well-developed and clearly ringed with 

 white; one exhibits well the characters of ab. exlensa 

 the 2nd-4th submedian spots elongated, the lower hall oi 

 the discoidal and the upper basal lengthened, whilst the 

 lower basal and the 7th and 8th submedian spots unite 

 into the Uarcuata form; two others are of the pansiensi'i 

 form, four of the ab. addenda in varying degrees, one being 

 well towards the aniico-juncta form; it is to be further 

 noted that occasionally they bear the complete row o 

 eight submedian spots on the forewings; the marginal 

 ocellations are well-developed, the orange lunule^s bright 

 on the hindwings, weak on the forewings, m which, howe\er, 

 the grey chevrons are sometimes very strongly developed 

 The metalUc scaling on the underside is well-developed at 

 the base of the hindwings, blue in the <J s and golden in 

 the 9 s 



It appears that our meridionalis comprises examples 

 that are referable to rezniceki and others to constanti, 

 whilst others seem to fall quite outside either. :SIost 

 of the specimens from Ste. Maxime and Draguignan 

 agree with those described by Eeverdin, but both these 

 places also give examples that correspond with rezniceki 

 in the particular pale ground colour of the underside, 

 which forms the essential distinction between the latter 

 form and constanti (teste Eeverdin); in addition meri- 

 dionalis includes ^ s which have the underside ground 

 colour much darker, and the hindwings much browner 

 than that mentioned in either of the other descriptions. 

 W'hether, therefore, these various Eivieran forms are 

 really racial or overlap, is a matter for future enquiry. 

 Our remarks on meridionalis are based on a series of 

 60 CÎ s and 17 ? s taken at Ste. Maxime, Draguignan, 

 and Hyères. In no way does Bartel's colour-description 

 of (J 'rezniceki agree with that of var. meridionalis, 

 which is pale silvery blue in tint, nor is his reference 

 to var. apennina understandable, as there is no special 



