318 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



VANESSA ANTIOPA. 



By W. F. Kirby, F.L.S., F.E.S., &c. 



It has been asserted by most authorities on British Lepi- 

 doptera for the last century, that British specimens of the 

 Camberwell Beauty have much whiter borders than Continental 

 ones; but I find that of late years an opinion is growing up, 

 and is becoming openly expressed, that this is not the case, and 

 that our British white-bordered specimens are only faded or 

 hibernated. The white-bordered form is not unknown on the 

 Continent, but seems to be very scarce in many localities; while, 

 although the yellow form is not quite unknown with us, it is so 

 rare (not more than two or three having been recorded) that I 

 am inclined to regard its occurrence in Britain as purely acci- 

 dental. It would be very desirable to ascertain the proportion of 

 white- to yellow-bordered specimens in different parts of Europe; 

 but I am not aware that anyone has investigated the subject. 

 American specimens, again, on the average, are larger, and 

 the border is more deeply coloured than in Continental ones. 

 During the present autumn, it is interesting to learn that several 

 specimens of this butterfly have been taken in Forfarshire, the 

 Isle of Skye, and other localities in Scotland, and have been 

 recorded in the ' Field ' and elsewhere. Two of these were 

 taken by Mr. W. K. Ogilvie Grant, who has kindly allowed me 

 to examine them, and the borders are snow-ivhite. As they 

 are fresh specimens, the question of hibernation or fading is 

 hardly admissible. Mr. C. W. Dale, in his * British Butterflies,' 

 pp. 157-162, has given a series of quotations from various 

 English authors relating to this butterfly. I have turned up 

 several of the older writers, and find that Donovan (1794) seems 

 to be the first author who speaks of the specially white bor- 

 ders of English specimens. Only two authors figure it with 

 yellow borders. Wilkes's figure is probably taken from a Con- 

 tinental specimen, for he says that he only knows of two British 

 specimens, but that it is very common in Germany. Harris 

 describes and figures the border as pale yellow, from a British 

 specimen. Otherwise all the figures and descriptions which I 

 have seen, by British authors, represent the border as ivhite, 

 though some say *' dirty white." Mr. Dale is, however, in error 

 respecting the use of the names hygicea and lintneri, the first 

 of which, he says, denotes the white form, and the other the 

 American form. The former name was originally used to denote 

 two forms of F. antiopa, one with white and one with yellow 

 borders. Dr. Staudinger has since restricted the name to the 

 aberration with very broad yellow borders, involving and nearly 

 obliterating the area usually occupied by the blue spots. In the 

 equally rare American aberration described as lintneri^ the yellow 



