158 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



castle station, Co. Wicklow, were infested with Apanteles Ugnelli, 

 which up to that time was considered a local species by Mr. 

 Bignell, having been named from a specimen from the same 

 host, taken in the North of Devon. In describing the forms of 

 this insect found in Ireland, I have found it necessary to traverse 

 considerable ground and consult a number of authorities ; and, 

 as the local variations presented in the United Kingdom are 

 numerous, consider that perhaps a short digest of the British 

 varieties that have come under my notice may be acceptable, as 

 they, together, form a catena of modifications in colour and 

 design, whose links seem to require classification, and their 

 relative positions determined. There are, it appears to me, 

 three leading forms. The first is represented by Hiibner's 

 figure 653, which is, I understand, generally accepted as the 

 typical form, Eottemburg's reference to the insect he named 

 aurinia being vague. 1. With the fulvous patches of all the 

 wings very uniform in hue, those of the central transverse bands 

 of the fore and hind wings only slightly brighter in tone than 

 the rest. The bases and reticulated ground pattern of a brownish 

 black. The female somewhat brighter in tone, and more ap- 

 proaching the var. jprceclara in some instances. This — which is 

 very rare in Ireland, occurring only, as far as my experience 

 goes, as an aberration — is a common form in England, and the 

 ordinary one of the Swiss Jura (Prof. Christ), and elswehere on 

 the Continent. I have met with it at Vichy, as well as at the 

 extreme South of France at Hyeres, where it is also accompanied 

 by the var. provincialis, H.-S., in which the uniformity of colora- 

 tion is still more pronounced, so that it may be described as of 

 a pale washed-out fulvous ground colour, with slightly marked 

 brownish reticulation. I am inclined to consider this type of 

 aurinia to be probably a near approximation to the ancestral 

 Melitaan type, since it combines the chief characters presented 

 by the females of this genus, modified or developed diversely in 

 the various species. The female of M. cynthia is especially close, 

 while its male, on the other hand, has developed very striking 

 central white bands, a divergence shown in a minor degree by 

 the following varieties of aurinia. I have a specimen of very 

 washed-out coloration, much approaching var. provincialis, 

 taken at Newbridge with the var. prcedara. 



Var. signifera, var. nov. — This is a transitional form from 

 Penarth, Wales. It is characterised as follows : — 1. By the stronger 

 black reticulation. 2. By the outer series of the central band of 

 fore wing having acquired an ochreous tint, repeated occasionally 

 in the last two spots of that of the hind wing, the rest of that 

 series being almost obsolete and fulvous. 3. The cellule of fore 

 wing is isolated by a broad black edging from the root of the 

 wing, a trait also observable in a less degree in the basal blotches 

 below the median nervule, the two areas so isolated reminding 



