72 



SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



BUTTERFLIES OF THE PALAEARCTIC REGION 



By Henry Charles Lang, M.D., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. Lond., F.E.S. 



{Continues, from page 41 1 .) 



{PIERIS continued.) 



19. P. napi Lin. Syst. Nat. X. 468. Lg. B. E. 

 p. 31. "The green-veined white." PI. VII. fig. 1, 

 pi. XV. larva. 



40—48 mm. 



"Wings white, with the bases dusky. The nervures 

 are distinct and black. F.w. with the apices and 

 sometimes the ends of the nervures dusky, and 

 sometimes with, but often without, a small black 

 spot midway between centre and ou. marg. $ 

 with two black spots as in P. rapae. H.w. with a 

 black costal spot. $ darker than <? , having blackish 

 shading along the course of the nervures. U.S. 

 f.w. white, tipped with greenish yellow, nervures 

 conspicuous, two black spots as in the allied species. 

 H.w. pale yellow, with dark scales placed thickly 

 along the course of the nervures, giving the appear- 

 ance of green veins. 



' 



Pieris deota, 9 . 



This species exhibits a more strongly marked 

 seasonal dimorphism than P. rapae. " In the 

 spring brood the apical blotch is greyer and not so 

 pronounced as in the summer brood, and the dark 

 markings are more suffused, whilst the u.s. h.w. is 

 yellower and veined much more distinctly, the 

 dusting of the nervures being of almost equal 

 density to the margin of the wing, but in the 

 summer emergence it becomes very faint towards 

 the margin " (H. Williams). 



Hab. Europe, Asia Minor, Persia, Siberia, Altai. 

 Throughout the season. 



Larva. Green with a dark dorsal shading, 

 spiracles marked with reel and yellow, on Cruciferae. 

 VI.— IX. 



a. var. napaeae Esp. The summer brood as above 

 (gen. II. al. post. subt. pallid. Stgr. Cat. 3.) 



b. ab. bryoniae 0. The Alpine form of the species, 

 and probably the survival of a normal primaeval 



(1) This series of articles on Butterflies of the Palaearctic 

 Region commenced in Science-Gossip, No. 61, June 1899. 



condition. $ larger than type, and more strongly 

 veined. 9 with ground colour yellowish, and the 

 dark markings very suffused and with dusky powder- 

 ing more or less distributed between the nervules 

 over the wing area, In a selected series from 

 Davos Plaz in my collection there is much variation 

 in the ground colour, and in the intensity of the 

 dark coloration. Habitat. The Alps of France, 

 Switzerland and Austria, also Scandinavia, at an 

 elevation of between 4,000 and 5,000 feet. Aber- 

 rations seem to occur in Central Asia and Siberia 

 which seem to be identical with bryoniae ; they are, 

 however, said not to be constant. Some very dusky 

 forms of the 9 occur occasionally in England and 

 elsewhere, which very closely approach bryoniae in 

 appearance ; the ground colour, however, in these- 

 is white. They belong to the 1st generation, and are 

 probably the var. intermedia of Kroulikowsky. 



c. ab. . flavescens Stgr. Gen. II. $ creamy 

 yellow in the ground colour. $ f.w. darker than 

 bryoniae, h.w. light yellow with black marginal 

 spots. This is a well-marked local aberration. 

 The only specimens I have seen are those taken by 

 Miss M. Fountaine at Modling, near Vienna, in 

 the summer of 1897. 



Pier is mesentina, 9 • 



20. P. ochsenheimeri Stgr. 



30—39 mm. 



The apex of f.w. of $ rather broadly black,, 

 and this apical patch is continued in a row of 

 marginal triangular spots at the extremities of the 

 nervules. Between the second and third median 

 nervules is a well-defined black spot. H.w. with a 

 well-marked costal spot, and a marginal row of 

 triangular black spots. ? very like some small 

 light specimens of P. napi var. bryoniae, only the 

 spots and the lines along the neuration are more- 

 defined and the ground colour is white. U.S. 

 around colour of h.w. and apices of f.w. much 

 browner in tint and less yellowish green than in 

 either P. napi or ab. bryoniae. 



