ANTHROCERA FILIPENDULAE. 509 



green, as observable in English specimens)," but Reid writes that all 

 Scotch examples that he has seen "have the ground-colour of a 

 greenish hue, and the red has a slight tinge of yellow, the spots not 

 nearly so clearly denned as in most English examples, and 5+6 

 usually more or less united." Adkin records specimens from Suther- 

 land, 2,000 ft. elevation, that are indistinguishable from Sussex 

 examples, even the size being well up to the average. Kane records 

 a small race as occurring in Monaghan in 1893, with very small red 

 blotches on the fore-wings, and a tendency to confluence between 1-2, 

 3-4 and 5-6, and one may add here that, apart from the small race 

 separately described as hippocrepidis, Stephs., some examples of otherwise 

 typical A. filipendulae are very small, expanding sometimes only from 

 25-28 mm. (= ab. minor, n. ab.) ; they are usually taken with the type, 

 have peculiarly narrow wings, and are undoubtedly a result of defective 

 nutrition in the larval stage. Caradja says that in Roumania the 

 specimens, generally, have the hind-wings more broadly margined 

 with black than those of typical examples, whilst amongst the 

 typical specimens .a very small form with light green fore- wings 

 occurs on dry ground. He adds that " just such a form, but 

 with five spots, has been observed at Hermannstadt, in South Russia, 

 and the Caucasus." Nolcken observes that the specimens from 

 the Baltic provinces vary much in size, th6 colour of the fore- 

 wings greenish or bluish, the border of the hind-wings variable 

 in width. Snellen says that specimens from the coast dunes of 

 Holland are larger (reaching to more than 42 mm.) than those from 

 the inland provinces (reaching from 23-37 mm.), they also have more 

 glossy fore-wings, and larger spots of somewhat more fiery carmine- 

 red colour. Examples from the south of Limburg are peculiar in the 

 almost blue ground colour of the fore-wings. Wallengren notes two 

 aberrations as occurring in Scandinavia : (a) Anterior wings with 

 yellow-green ground colour, (b) The spots on the fore-wings more 

 or less confluent. In the southern Alps a race (or species) with spot 

 6 rather small and ill-developed in the male, known as ochsenheimeri, 

 Zell., is found, attaining a considerable size in the warm southern 

 valleys. This forms, in part, Staudinger's var. dubia, a 5-spotted 

 species (inedicaginis, Bdv., ante, p. 470) being erroneously combined 

 therewith by this author to constitute the latter variety. Frey had 

 specimens from Sicily, sent under the name ochsenheimeri, which were 

 rather small, strikingly pale, but otherwise ordinary, A. filipendulae. 

 The normal spotting in this species, consists of 6 separate red spots. 

 It frequently happens, however, that one or more pairs are confluent, 

 in some examples the outer pair (5 + 6), in others 3 + 4 or 1 + 2, 

 whilst in many examples 1 + 2, 3 + 4 and 5 + 6 are. united in pairs, 

 so that the 6 spots form but 8 (= ab. cytisi, Wo.). The spots, how- 

 ever, occasionally unite longitudinally {ante, p. 425). Among these 

 confluent forms we find certain very distinct types, of which the 

 rarest is the union of 2 + 4, 3 + 5, these spots with 1 forming three 

 wedge-shaped blotches, similar to those existing normally in A. pur- 

 puralis ; this we call ab. trivittata, n. ab. We have one example 

 with the left fore-wing of the trivittata form, the right normal. More 

 frequently 2 + 3 + 4 unite to form a single blotch, leaving 1, 5 and 6 

 separate (=ab. confluens, Oberth.). Bayne notes one, from Sandwich, 

 with 1 + 2 + 8 + 4 united, 5 and 6 being separate (= ab. bipunctata, 



