46 



Apennî^ somewhat lighter browp, and with stronger blue 

 -p^ J. j.'i at the base. The â Wi'eti is specially distinguished 



Butt 



unusual colouring of the wings, the very large, 



-r 



J 



tne wry broad, light-bordered, marginal spots of the hind- 



dionahd still more by the different underside of the wings, 



gQjjje 'ä-pproaches so Closely to A. bellargus that one can 



1 j-j.p„ nistake an unset specimen, whose upperside has 



'm seen, for the latter species. In its colouring, 



spots uclines towards var. hispana, H.-S., but the blue 



preseriipperside is different, the border is darker, and the 



•^j-jjlgjiscoidal spot wanting, the hindwing on the under- 



f J.1- of a darker ground colour; in the $ of var. hispana, 



scoidal spot on the hindwing does not stand out so 



and -ly; the row of red spots is much stronger, the under- 



Thet the forewings darker. The $ of var. albicans, H.-Sch., 



cliotp^s shade, much more thickly scaled, and the brown 



entirely absent; the discoidal spot of the forewing 



^.»»■ker and thicker, but does not stand out so strongly; 



"10% only very weak red spots or none at all; on the other 



ligL the $ of var. albicans has a more conspicuous mar- 



likt I'O"^^' of black spots than the new form; the under- 



is equally brownish, the light margin of the spots 



™e indistinct, less conspicuous, the spotting itself is 



st%er; this is most conspicuously so with the marginal 



.i>V; the greenish suffusion at the base and on the inner 



margin of the hindwings beneath, is not perceptible in 



var. albicans. The $ s of var. corydonius, H.-Sch., and 



var. caucasica. Led., have no antemarginal red spots on 



the forewing, the latter form is also much darker, without 



discoidal spot on the hindwings, and only very weak dark 



red spots on this wing; the discoidal spot on the forewing 



is also much smaller; the underside of the forewing is 



darker, the spotting conspicuously weaker, most strikingly 



at the margin. Expanse: cJ 29 mm — 30 mm., $ 



29 mm. — 31 mm. Locality: Rapallo (Italian Riviera), 



June 1st — 10th, 1904: Monte Carlo, June 10th — 13th, 



1904; also from Bordighera and Nice. Taken by Herr 



von Reznicek (Bartel). 



This description of Bartel's is most confusing 

 owing to what appears to be an entire misappHcation 

 of names to the forms with which he attempts to insti- 

 tute a comparison. He certainly fails to recognise ab. 

 apennina Zeller, hispana, H.-Sch., albicans, H.-Sch., 

 and corydonius, H.-Sch., and his references thereto 

 make his comparison worse than useless. His cory- 

 donius appears to be a mixture of the true hispana, 

 H.-Sch., and olymfica, Led., his hispana our caerules- 

 cens, his albicans our arragonensis, Gerg., etc. Apart 

 from all these probably erroneous references to races 

 as widely different from the Eivieran specimens as 

 is possible within the species, one wonders what pur- 

 pose is served by a comparison of forms so utterly 

 unlike. In its broad outlines, one assumes from the 

 description that rezniceki is like the other Eivieran 

 forms, yet there is hardly a point laid down as diag- 

 nostic, in which meridionalis, at least, does not differ. 

 We have already discussed {antea, pp. 46 — 48) most 

 of these points, as far as our material allows. A careful 

 diagnostic description of rezniceki, stripped of unneces- 

 sarj' verbiage, is still a desideratum. 



y var. vern. constanti, Reverdin, ,,Ent. Rec.'\ xxii., 

 p. 60 (1910). — Agriades coridon var. constanti, gen. prae- 

 cox. — Upperside: General ground tint less vivid and 

 brilliant than in typical A. coridon, this tint is slightly 

 greyish; if one places side by side two series of ^4. coridon, 

 the one of the ordinary form, the second of those from 

 Pardigon, those of the latter appear noticeably duller and 

 more greyish. The forewing generally shows a small black 

 line, more or less well-marked, at the extremity of the 

 discoidal cell; the grey marginal border is broad, and often 

 shows a series of dirty white lunules in its centre. The 

 hindwing is ornamented along its outer margin with eye- 

 spots, which are generally complete, i. e., formed by a 

 large black point surrounded by a whitish ring, which is 

 whiter in the part bordering the black point externally, 

 and is generally blackish-grey internally. Underside: The 

 ground colour, instead of being whitish as in the type, 

 is grey, and of a very marked grey, scarcely at all brow- 

 ner on the hindwings, whilst in the type the two wings 

 differ much from one another as a rule, the hindwing being 

 yellowish, the forewing whitish. The margin of all the 



wings presents a complete series of black points encircled 

 by white, these eye-spots are on the hindwings surmoun- 

 ted by orange lunules, bordered in turn internally with 

 little black chevrons; on the forewings the eye-spots are 

 edged internally with chevrons of a dark grey, which some- 

 times form a continuous blackish band. All the spots on 

 the underside of both wings are very large. These cha- 

 racters are, apart from the dull tint of the upperside and 

 the dark grey colouring of the underside, similar to those 

 of var. rezniceki, Bartel, which is distinguished by the 

 discoidal mark of the forewings and the large size of the 

 eye-spots on the hindwings above, and the large spotting 

 beneath; but while rezniceki is whiter beneath than the 

 type, the variety of Var is much greyer. As is the case 

 with rezniceki, the eye-spots on the upperside of the hind- 

 wings are often edged internally with a little fulvous (ab. 

 suavis, Schultz). The variety which I have just described 

 shows a tendency to the increase of the blaclv pigment, 

 and the presence on the underside of the <? s of additional 

 black spots is frequent; of the 92 cj s which I possess, 

 apart from one ab. biarcuata and one ab. radiata, 12 speci- 

 mens have these additional spots, one of these specimens 

 has no fewer than 11 of them. In the $ s I do not find 

 any special characters so accentuated as in the c? s, but 

 of these I only possess 12; the only thing that strikes me 

 is the darker coloration of the underside and the less mar- 

 ked difference in tint between the fore- and hindwing than 

 is the case in other races. In any case, the characters 

 of the 3 s seem to me so distinctive and so constant as 

 to indicate that we have to do with a variety which de- 

 serves to be distinguished. In remembrance of the ento- 

 mologist who first studied it, I name it ,,var. constanti, gen. 

 praecox." .^s Mr. Wheeler supposes, it is very probable 

 that, in the localities where this variety flies, A. coridon 

 may have three broods in the year. Further, if, in Switzer- 

 land, it has only one, it has two at Mentone, as I am in- 

 formed by M. Balestre; 105 <? s and 1.5 $s captured April 

 6th— 19th, 1906; April 11th— 19th, 1908, at Pardigon, 

 Var (Reverdin). 



This is an excellent general description of the 

 Eivieran form as we know it, except that, in the parti- 

 cular that Eeverdin seizes as diagnostic, viz., the dark 

 grey colour of the underside, our meridionalis com- 

 prises individuals from the same locality which are 

 dark grey, like constanti, and others pale like rezniceki. 

 Eeverdin further notes that he captured his specimens 

 at Pardigon, on the shore of the Bay of Cavalaire, and 

 the railway-bank near the station of La Croix. He 

 states {teste Oberthiir) that Constant found the same 

 form at St. Tropez, about 12 kilomètres from Pardigon, 

 and that it was taken hj Powell in the Forêt du Dom. 

 It is also said to be the form obtained by Wheeler bet- 

 ween Cavalaire and le Canadel, May 6th, 1909. As 

 to the racial value of constanti apart from rezniceki, 

 Blachier observes {in litt.) that ,, Bartel describes the 

 underside of the latter as tolerably pale, the forewings 

 whitish or greyish-white, the hindwings pale grey", 

 further, that the rezniceki that he himself took at Chiavari, 

 May 22nd, 1903, as also those sent by Bartel and Bang- 

 Haas under this name to Eeverdin and Eehfous had 

 the underside greyish-white in the forewings, and pale 

 yellowish-grey in the hindwings, whilst the specimens 

 captured by Eeverdin at Pardigon have the underside 

 dark grey or bluish-grey; sometimes the forewings 

 of the latter are paler than the hindwings, but the 

 undersides of certain specimens have all the wings 

 uniformly dark grey; the grey lunules preceding the 

 antemarginal points of the underside of the forewings 

 beneath are well marked in blackish-grey. As to these 

 being different races, it really appears strange that, 

 in the same district, at the same time, two distinct 

 races should appear. I may add that the spring examples 

 that Eeverdin has from Mentone and Nice are of the 

 rezniceki form." So far as Blachier distinguishes con- 

 stanti, the difference is reduced to the tint of the ground 

 colour and the dark marginal lunules of the underside. 

 In these two respects constanti may be said to agree 



