EVERES ARGiADES. 5? 



muni and minimum measurements of examples of both sexes of this 

 in his collection (Ent. Eec, xx., p. 265). The Denmark examples 

 in the British Museum collecuon, $ s and £ s, are exceptionally large, 

 as also are specimens from "Bagovitza, July 1893," but the 

 largest examples of all, perhaps, are from the Changhai Mountains, 

 Mongolia, and certain localities in Japan — Nagahama, Nagasaki, 

 Satsuma, Kisogawa, and Sunagawa. The $ s of the summer brood, 

 which we captured at Chavoire, near Annecy, July 31st -August 3rd, 

 1 902, are very like the examples from the Changhai Mountains, both in 

 their large size, dark colour,* and brighter orange crescents ; they are 

 also very similar in their general appearance to the example figured by 

 Bergstrasser as tiresias (Nomen., h., pi. xlv., figs. 1-4). As to the variation 

 in the length of the caudal appendage, one has to be cautious incoming 

 to any conclusion, for it is a most delicate structure formed of the finest 

 cilia, and often missing in the finest specimens, also sometimes missing 

 on one side and present on the other. It is usually stated that alcetas 

 has a shorter tail than argiades, and this appears to be certainly the 

 case. The remarkably different forms to which various scientific authors 

 have applied the names of the various races, compels us to give a brief 

 summary of the best known of these. Taking the earliest descriptions 

 of the best-known forms, we may summarise them as follows : — 



Argiades, Pall. (1775). — J blue like C. argiolus, but muck smaller ; the hind- 

 wings slightly tailed, and with fulvous crescents beneath. ? fuscous (as in 2 

 P. argus). 



Amyntas, Schiff. (1775), Fab. (1787). — Blue, with dark margin and white cilia ; 

 forewings with black discoidal lunule, hindwings tailed. Beneath ashy ; spots 

 somewhat obsolete ; above and below, two black-centred fulvous crescents near 

 anal angle (Fabricius). 



1 'iresias, Rott. (1776). — 3 blue. ? dark brown (sometimes tinged with blue 

 towards base); generally two orange-coloured marginal spots on hindwings ; orange- 

 coloured spots on underside of hindwings with green metallic kernels. 



Polys per chon, Bergs. (1779). — 3 small, blue. ? blue-tinted on black ; hind- 

 wings with marginal spots surrounded by blue crescents ; underside with 

 orange crescents. 



Esper, in 1777, under the name of tiresias, figured (Eur. Schmett., 

 pi. xxxiv. [supp. x.], figs. 1-2) a $ (fig. 2), and $ (fig. 1), neither 

 with any trace of the characteristic metallic kernels of this form, in the 

 orange crescents above the tail. He also figured (pi. xlix. [supp. xxv.] , 

 fig. 2) another 2 , under this name, blue-black, without any orange 

 crescents above or beneath,! and so, of course, without the characteristic, 

 metallic kernels of true tiresias. In 1779, Bergstrasser described and figured 

 tiresias twice (Nom., ii., p. 73, pi. xlv., figs., 1-4; and hi., p. 11, pi. liv., 

 figs. 3-4). He refers the name to Esper, and evidently followed this 

 author. He gives (pi. xlv., figs. 1-4) very good figures of the large 

 form that we have taken at Chavoire ; the £ is particularly like these 

 examples, but none of them have the metallic kernels on the under- 

 side of the hindwings that characterise tiresias. Bergstrasser himself 



* Oberthiir particularly notes (in litt.) the blackness of the Thibetan ? s, and the 

 contrasting large orange-yellow lunules on the upperside of the hindwings. This 

 form would possibly be similar to the Mongolian, just noticed. 



| This is evidently a small form of alcetas, Hffmg., and probably the form 

 called yolysperchon by some of the French lepidopterists, and certainty that taken 

 in the Rhone Valley in Switzerland, by Favre, and others (Wheeler). 



