456 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



Stettin and in other localities, whilst Rye records a specimen from the 

 New Forest, with the red spots united as in A. purpuralis, and separated 

 only by the nervures. This mode of blotching, so rare in Europe, 

 becomes, according to Staudinger, common in the Ala Tau district, 

 and forms the bulk of the var. confusa, Staud., so that we have here 

 another illustration of a rare aberration in one locality becoming the 

 common form in another. Boisduval notes (Mon. cles Zyg., p. 52) that 

 it occasionally happens that the spots are united into an irregular 

 band, and King and Fletcher record specimens from the New Forest 

 that have the red spots of the fore-wings all united into a single long 

 red blotch. This extreme red form might be called ab. confluens, n. ab. 

 Staudinger refers to stentzii, Frr., as an aberration of this species with 

 a red abdominal belt, and records it from the southern Alpine valleys 

 and Armenia. It is remarkable that in most localities where typical 

 A. viciae occur, this aberration is very rarely noticed, although Christy 

 has two New Forest specimens with slight traces of a red abdominal 

 belt. Hering notes it as unknown in North Germany, and Nolcken 

 as unknown in the Baltic provinces of Russia. Caradja says it occurs, 

 however, with the type and ab. dahurica, in Roumania. A. charon, Hb., 

 considered by Calberla and others to be a transalpine six-spotted form 

 of A. viciae, is, in our opinion, most decidedly a perfectly distinct 

 species, the evidence offered by Christ and Calberla being quite 

 insufficient to confirm their opinion with any degree of certainty. 

 Bright notes that he has a specimen from the New Forest with the left 

 hind-wing orange instead of red. 



a. ab. stentzii, Freyer, " Neuere Beitrage," iii., p. 120, pi. 278, fig. 4 (1839). 

 ? Meliloti var., H.-Sch., " Sys. Bearb.," ii., figs. 86-87 (1845). Cingulata, Frey, 

 " Mitt. Sch. Ent. Ges.," vii., p. 14 (1887). — Konewka has four specimens of an 

 insect in his collection, which he calls stentzii, but does not know whether they are 

 a distinct species or an aberration of some other. Of this stentzii, I give a figure 

 for comparison. The difference between it and Z. dorycnii, Ochs., is so striking, 

 both in colour and markings, that those who have considered them identical cannot 

 have known the true dorycnii in nature (Freyer). 



Staudinger refers (Cat., p. 46) this figure of Freyer's to A. meliloti, 

 with the note : " Abdom. rubro-cingulato." In our own judgment, 

 Freyer's figure scarcely represents a form of A. viciae. It appears to 

 us something like a small A. trifolii, thickly scaled, with five distinct red 

 spots, ground colour deep green, broad border to the hind-wings ; a red 

 ring round the abdomen just above the terminal segments ; the under- 

 side paler, and spots distinct. (The dorycnii referred to by Freyer is a 

 six-spotted species with distinct spots, deep green ground colour, 

 and broad hind margin to posterior wings.) Neither do Herrich- Schaffer's 

 figures, 86-87, appear to represent our insect, although referred here by 

 Staudinger and others. On the other hand, Speyer says the five-spotted 

 form with red girdle is found near Rhoden andWildungen, with the type ; 

 he also states that it occurs occasionally as an aberration in North 

 Germany. Hering, hoAvever, distinctly states that it does not occur in 

 Pomerania, but adds that it differs in no way from A. meliloti, except in 

 the possession of a red abdominal belt, and further, that Stentz himself 

 assured him that in his locality the insect occurred partly with and 

 partly without the belt, and that it could only be looked upon as an 

 aberration of A. meliloti. As Hering probably saw specimens of stentzii, 

 his judgment is valuable, since he knew more, perhaps, than any other 

 German lepidopterist of his time about A. viciae (meliloti). We are the 



