EVERES. 



45 



The group was first separated by Hiibner, who applied the generic 

 name Everes (Verz., p. 69) to the species, and described it as 

 follows : — 



The hindwings delicately tailed ; all the wings beneath bluish-white marked 

 with black— Everes amyntas, Schiff., "Verz.," Pap. n. 18 {tiresias, Esp., " Pap.," 

 xxxiv., figs. 1-2 ; Hiibn., " Pap.," figs. 322-4).* E. polysperchon, Bergstr., " Nom.," 

 pi. xliv., figs. 3-5 (tiresias, Hb., " Pap.," figs. 319-321). 



Staudinger includes (Cat., 3rd ed., p. 77) the species of this genus 

 in his heterogeneous group Lycaena, whilst Meyrick places it in his 

 amazing genus Chrysophanns, which contains all the smooth-eyed 

 Lycaenines and Chrysophanines. On the other hand, Scudder, Moore, 

 Butler, de Niceville, Leech and others, have fully recognised the 

 essential differences between this genus and the Plebeiid Lycsenids, 

 and treat it separately. 



There can be no doubt as to the validity of Hiibner's name for the 

 genus. The two species he mentions, amyntas, Schiff., and polysper- 

 chon, Bergstr., are merely forms of the same species. Hiibner's amyntas, 

 referred to in the synonymy, agrees, as he notes, with amyntas, Schiff. ; 

 but his tiresias is not, as he writes, the same as polysperchon, Bergstr., 

 but was named alcetas, Hoffmansegg. The species here called amyntas, 

 Schiff., and its var. polysperchon, Bergstr., are merely forms of the 

 species now known as argiades, Pallas. There is, therefore, no 

 question that this is the type of the genus, as indicated by Scudder, in 

 1872, in his Syst. Rev. of Nth. Amer. Butts., p. 35, and, in 1875, in his 

 Historical Sketch, p. 176. The only doubt that has ever arisen in the 

 matter has been due to Kirby's action in 1896, when, in his Handbook 

 to the Order Lepidoptera, ii., p. 85, he notes argiades as the type of 

 Schrank's much older Cupido, thus practically reducing Everes to a 

 synonym with the same type ; but this action is altogether ultra vires 

 for, in 1870. Kirby had already stated (Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool., x., 

 p. 499), that the true type of Cupido appeared to be " alsus (minimus)," 

 a position which he emphasised in a letter to Scudder, and which was 

 published by the latter (Historical Sketch, p. 293) in 1875. The whole 

 of Kirby's later action is, therefore, as stated, ultra vires, and minimus 

 must remain, however fanciful and far-fetched we may consider the 

 original reason for making it so, the type of Cupido, leaving Everes 

 quite unaffected by any later action. This was evidently Scudder's 

 view when he retained Everes fox comyntas (an American insect 

 hardly, if at all, differentiate from our European species argiades), 

 as also that of Moore, Butler, Doherty, Distant, de Niceville and 

 Leech, who used it for the eastern forms of argiades, and the allied 

 species. Scudder, indeed, describes (Butts. Neiv England, ii., pp. 905 

 et seq.) the genus, under the name Everes, as follows : — 



Imago : Head small, densely covered with scales, recumbent on the front, more 

 erect above, and tufted slightly about the base of the antenna? ; provided also sparsely 

 with longer, but still rather short, hairs, nearly erect above, curved downward in 

 front. Front nearly flat, slightly sunken above, a very little bulbous below, barely 

 protruding beyond the front of the eyes, twice as high as broad, scarcely two-thirds 

 as broad as the eyes on a front view, the sides parallel, the upper border squarely 

 docked, its angles hollowed in front of the antenna?, the lower border well rounded. 

 Vertex scarcely vaulted, with a scarcely perceptible ridge running from the middle 



* This is correct as a quotation from Hubner's Verzeichniss, but, in point of 

 fact, Hubner's figs. 322-324 are called amyntas, and figs. 319-321 on the same plate 

 are called tiresias. 



