﻿1889.] 63 



employed by Staudinger in his Catalogue — i. e., local races or forma, which in some 

 districts (more or less extensive) displace the type. Now there must be some 

 place or places where these originated, and where, in all probability, both forms 

 still co-exist ; and there only could we with any certainty expect to obtain the one 

 from the eggs of the other. 



I believe the form Medon is never seen in Scotland, nor that of Artaxerxes on 

 the Continent ; but there are certain districts in England where both (as also 

 intermediate) forms are said to be taken. Could not entomologists in these localities 

 rear the eggs of both forms, and see whether both can be obtained from the same 

 parent ? This will involve a little more trouble than coolly assuming their identity 



The fact of Artaxerxes never having been met with in any locality in either 

 Northern or Alpine Continental Europe, goes far, I think, to prove its being distinct. 

 Tn this respect it is unique among our Rhopalocera, all our others, whether species 

 or varieties, being met with on the Continent. I intend, if possible, to send eggs 

 of Artaxerxes to Professor Zeller, but I do not expect they will produce any other 

 form, even with the change of food-plant. — A. Wilson, Young Street, Edinburgh, 

 5th July, 1869. 



On Lycosna Artaxerxes. — I received on 8th May of this year, by my friend, 

 Professor Hering, of Stettin, four larvae of Lye. Artaxerxes, sent from Edinburgh 

 expressly for me. Three were full grown, so that one was a pupa already on the 

 10th. The fourth was much smaller, more yellowish, and with a sickly aspect. 

 As the Helianth. vulgare does not grow in the vicinity of Stettin, in order to do 

 something towards saving it from perishing by starvation, I offered it some young 

 plants of the Erodium cicutarium, and lo, it bored directly into a flower bud, which on 

 the following day, I found eaten out. In the sequel I saw it really consuming, 

 with good appetite, the unopened blossoms of that plant. While it was thus 

 eating and growing, its colour gradually changed to a healthy green one. As late 

 as the 22nd May, it changed to a good pupa, though it had before fallen down from 

 the place where it had attached itself. On the 9th June, a small Artaxerxes, ? , 

 made its appearance. 



Now I had expected that the different food which it had eaten for more than 

 eight days would have exercised some influence and a little altered its markings, 

 so as to become more like Medon (Agestis). But no, it is the completes^ possible 

 Artaxerxes, having a considerable pure white spot in the middle of the fore-wings, 

 and the white spots of the under-side, with no trace of a black centre ; even on 

 the upper-side of the hind-wings a faint white dot is to be seen. 



As the larva of Artaxerxes, in the case of necessity, feeds on Erodium, I suppose 

 that that of Medon (Agestis) will do so with the leaves of Helianthemum, and I 

 think it worth while to try ; but to obtain a more satisfactory result than I obtained 

 on account of so short a time of feeding one Artaxerxes larva, one should give 

 them that unusual food from the earliest time possible. On such grounds as Medon 

 inhabits, the plants of Erodium, at the end of June, or rather in the beginning of 

 spring, must be cautiously cut next to the root, and shaken on a white sheet, by 

 which means the larvaa will easily be obtained ; and the younger they are, the 

 fitter they will be for the experiment. The reward, perhaps, may be that the 



