SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



43 



BUTTERFLIES OF THE PALAEARCTIO REGION. 



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



(Continued from page 15.) 



Genus COLZAS (continued). 



QINCE writing my description of Colias palaeno 

 ^ the third edition of " Staudinger's Catalogue " 

 has made its long-looked-for appearance. In this 

 edition the nomenclature of this species has been 

 readjusted. The name lapponica Stgr. (var. c on 

 p. 15, ante, Science-Gossip) has been sunk, and 

 this, the Scandinavian and Russian form, is con- 

 sidered the type of the species, as C. palaeno L- 

 This is obviously the correct view. There can be 

 no doubt that Linnaeus originally described the 

 species from Scandinavian specimens. The form 

 described as the type on p. 14 is called var. europome, 

 and under this head a reference is made to my 

 " Butterflies of Europe," in which this, the German 

 form, is figured as the type. The form described 

 on page 14 (S.-G.) as ab. $ werdandi H. S. is 

 altered to Q ab. herricld Stgr., it being considered 

 that Werdandi of Herrich Schaffer is the same as 

 palaeno L. 



Several other forms of this butterfly are given 

 in the new edition of " Staudinger's Catalogue " as 

 under : 



ab. schildei Stgr. Iris, v. 310. (Yellower, with 

 a narrower border.) Hab. N. Finland. 



ab. cretaeea Schilde. Ent. Nachr. Chalky 

 white in S and J ; u.s. bluish-grey. Hab. Fin- 

 land. 



$ ab. illgneri Riihi. Soc. Ent. v. 1890, p. 89. 

 This is an ab. of $ europome of a yellow colour. 

 Hab. Silesia. 



v. et ab. eafflisclii Carad. Soc. ent. viii. 26. 

 Smaller, f .w. without disc. spot. Borders narrower, 

 h.w. lighter green. " Forma vix nominanda." Stgr. 

 var. pelidneides Stgr. $ with the central spot 

 on h.w. red, as in the next species. Hab. Alaska. 

 I may here mention that it is my intention to 

 follow the nomenclature and arrangement of the 

 new edition of " Staudinger's Catalogue " as nearly 

 as possible, although this will necessitate some 

 departure from the plan originally suggested. Up 

 to this point the present work is but little affected 

 by the changes, and these, which chiefly concern 

 nomenclature, will be dealt with at a later period. 

 This present arrangement of the genus Colias, how- 

 ever, is original, and may be looked upon as my 

 own revision of the genus. 



24. C. pelidne B Ic. t. 8 f. 1-3 (1832). Lg. 

 B. E. pi. xi, fig. 3. C. labradorensis. C. anthyale. 

 Hb. Stgr. Cat. 1871, p. 5 (alia est species). 



I adopted the name C. anthyale for this species 

 on p. 200 of the last volume of Science-Gossip for 



the reason that it was used in Stgr. Cat., 1871, and 

 also by R. H., though I had in my " Butterflies of 

 Europe " used the name pelidne, which now appears 

 in the edition 1901 of Stgr. Cat. as the proper 

 name of the species. 



38 — 45 mm. 



Differs from C. jwlaeno in its smaller size and in 

 the narrower border in $ ; this is also usually 

 veined with light yellow. The J is very pale in 

 colour and the borders indistinct and showing very 

 little trace of spots. Disc, spot of f.w. is generally 

 present, but very faintly marked in both sexes. 

 That of the u.s. h.w. is red, instead of white as in 

 C. palaeno. 



Hab. Labrador. Not in the polar regions of 

 Europe or Asia. 



a. ab. vioesehleri. Gr.-Gr. Hor. XXVII. 

 p. 379. Has the f.w. tinged with orange colour. 



25. C. erate Esp. 119, 3 ; Lg. B. E. p. 54, 

 pi. xii. fig. 4. Nerine. Fr. 301, 1, 2. 



45 — 50 mm. 



All the wings bright pale yellow, black at the 

 base. F.w. of $ with a rather broad h. marginal 

 border, black powdered with grey, sometimes with 

 light veins ; it is broadest at the costa, and reach- 

 ing quite to the in. marg. ; its internal edge is not 

 so sharply defined as in C. chrysotheme, etc. Disc, 

 spot black and distinct. H.w. with a distinct 

 narrowish black border. Disc, spot orange. £ has 

 the wings of same colour as $ , but the borders of 

 all the wings have large spots of the ground 

 colour. U.s. almost as in C. hyale, but the disc, 

 spot f.w. is white in the centre. H.w. greener at 

 base. Head, antennae, anterior thorax, and wing- 

 fringes red. 



Hab. S. Russia, S. Siberia, Amur, W. and C. 

 Asia (Armenia, Persia, Turkestan, Tianschan, 

 Fergana, etc.) 



a. hybr. chrysodona B. Spec. Gen. 1. p. 7 (1840). 

 Helictha Ld. z. b. v. (1853). Resembles the type 

 in size and pattern, but the ground colour is clear 

 light orange-yellow, varying in different specimens 

 from being somewhat yellower than the type to 

 having a tint almost as deep as in C. edusa. By 

 most writers considered to be a hybrid between 

 C. erate and C. edusa. Hab. Sarepta, N. Persia, 

 Central Asia. 



b. ab. $ pallida Stgr. Cat. 1871, Lg. B. E. pi. xii. 

 fig. 5. Dimorphic white form of £ . Very diffi- 

 cult to distinguish from some forms of C. hyale. 

 The characters most to be relied on are the breadth 

 of the marginal border of f.w. and its more even 



c 4 



