468 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



ab. chalybea, Meves, is one in which the red is suffused and has become 

 dark brown in colour, a form exactly parallel with A. filipendulae ab. 

 chrysanthemi, etc. Such variation as takes place in the spotting is 

 rather constant, and has been already described (ante, p. 425). The 

 tendency for 1 to form a long wedge-shaped streak along the 

 costa = ab. cuneata, n. ab. (? cytisi, Frr., Neu. Beit., pi. 164, fig. 4), 

 has been occasionally noticed. The form in which all five spots 

 are united was first figured by Hiibner as achilleae, the most ex- 

 treme form in this direction being one recorded by Peyerimhoff as 

 having the fore-wings entirely red. Kobson records a specimen 

 bred from a York pupa, intermediate between ab. achilleae and ab. 

 cuneata. It has the costal spot, 1, forming a long streak beyond, but 

 not confluent with, the upper spot of the central pair, whilst the lower 

 spot of the central pair (on the left wing only) is connected with the 

 lower basal spot by a suffused streak. The lower central spot is 

 similarly connected with the fifth (outer, apical) spot, also on the left 

 wing only. On both wings, the fifth spot is extended towards the anal 

 angle, considerably farther than usual. We have seen a specimen in 

 which the anterior wings have 2 joined to 4, and 3 only just separate 

 from 5, thus approaching the trivittata form of A. trifolii. Caradja notes 

 one from Eoumania with 5 + 3 united. Aberrations with three longi- 

 tudinal markings (1, 2 + 4, 3 + 5) might be called ab. trivittata, n. ab. 

 Occasionally a specimen occurs with the two central spots (3, 4) united, 

 but the aberration is very rare in this species ; this form we call 

 ab. ceyxtripuncta, n. ab. We have also seen specimens with a small 

 supplementary sixth spot between 3 and 5 ; two such examples are 

 in the British Museum collection. Costa records a Neapolitan form 

 of the species with smaller spots than usual, and Boisduval notes 

 a similar race in Normandy, but his reference to the spots being 

 " as small or even smaller than those of A. filipendulae" is rather 

 inexplicable, as the spots of A, filipendulae in this country are usually 

 of good size, quite as large as those of A. lonicerae. Klemensiewicz 

 notes an example of A. lonicerae that emerged with only one antenna. 

 Although, as we have just pointed out, A. lonicerae is characterised by 

 its attempt to maintain a fixed type, yet it must not be supposed that 

 there is an entire absence of local races. We have already referred 

 to the var. major, Frey, which is really only a large variety, but with 

 otherwise characteristic and normal facies. If, as we suspect, A. medi- 

 cayinis is a highly differentiated southern form of this species, we 

 have, in its deeper coloration and more metallic appearance, an almost 

 parallel development with that observed in A. charon, Hb., which 

 Calberla unites (ante, p. 458) with A. viciae. Very similar to Frey's 

 var. major is the fine large form which Johnson obtained at the Mul- 

 linures in Armagh, although the most striking local form we have in 

 Britain comes from Filey, on the Yorkshire coast. In this race, the 

 measurements of which extend from 34£ mm. -39 mm., the fore-wings 

 are broader, the ground colour deeper, the red spots and hind-wings 

 of a richer tint, than in the type, and the hind margin to the hind-wings 

 is also exceptionally broad, characters rarely seen in the examples 

 from other British localities represented in our collection, and all re- 

 minding one somewhat of the southern medicayinis. For this race we 

 suggest the name latomarginata, n. var., owing to the broad margin of 

 the hind-wings which characterises it. 



