CUPIDO MINIMUS. 107 



Lewes district, measuring &| lines (just under 18mm.) in expanse. 

 The average Asiatic examples appear to be somewhat larger than the 

 European. Riihl has named the Thibetan race var. manna, but, judged 

 from the specimens in the British Museum Coll., these are hardly so 

 large as those from several other localities, e.g., those from the Altai, 

 Urals, etc. Graeser observes {Rom. Mini., vi., p. 164) that the Amur- 

 land examples are always larger, the underside paler blue-grey, with 

 larger black spots than in the usual European examples, and further 

 states (Bed. Ent. Zeit*., xxxii., p. 80) that, whilst the European 

 examples measure from 21mm. to 24mm., those from Amurland 

 measure from 25mm. to 29mm. Staudinger, writing of the specimens 

 from the Kentei mts., says (Iris, v., p. 319) that they mostly measure 

 25mm., are somewhat larger than the usual minimus, although they 

 do occur just as large and larger in Europe ; the 2 s are quite dark 

 on the upperside. Alpheraky notes (Horn. Mem., ix., p. 319) that four 

 J specimens from Kamschatka, taken in June and July, measured 

 from 21mm. -26mm. ; the undersides very bright, the uppersides dark, 

 without any blue scaling in three of the specimens, a weak bluish tint 

 only in the 4th at the base of the forewings. The Urals give a fine 

 large race, fully as large, or larger than var. mar/na, and scaled heavily 

 with blue in the $ s ; on the whole these seem to agree with the large 

 alpine form, known as var. ahoides, Anderegg. The var. howkowi, is 

 also a large form, the $ s heavily scaled with blue, but differing from 

 all other varieties on the underside. Leech observes that Chinese 

 specimens are rather larger than European examples, the J s uniformly 

 dark bluish-grey, and the $ s rather more shining-black : on the 

 underside the ground colour is more bluish-white than in European 

 specimens, agreeing in this respect with C. sebrus ; the black spots on 

 the underside are more or less absent. Certainly those from How- 

 Kow are the largest examples of the species in the British Museum coll. 

 Rebel calls the specimens from Bosnia and Hercegovina very large, 

 and says they sometimes expand as much as 24mm. ; he further observes 

 that, on Juh' 22nd, 1892, he saw some specimens at Renglstein, with 

 a wing-expanse of more than 22mm., evidently, he adds, the larger 

 form observed by Christ (Verh. d. naturw. Ges. in Basel, viii., p. 129). 

 The ordinary, not racial, examples of large size, i.e., more than 24mm. 

 we call ab. major, n. ab., those less than 19mm., we call ab. minor, 

 n. ab. Even if Esper's small minutus be referable to the species its 

 peculiar fringe makes it a most unusual aberration. The undersides 

 show considerable variation in ground colour, as well as in the size 

 and number of the spots. Some examples are almost spotless ( =ab. 

 obsoleta), whilst, in very rare cases, the spots are elongated as small 

 dashes ( = ab. striata, n. ab.). Certain districts appear to be more subject 

 to this underside variation than others, for Wilkinson states (mi litt.) 

 that the Cumberland examples vary considerably in the undersides, 

 some being spotless, others much streaked and spotted. Dennis 

 exhibited specimens from Horsley, showing a complete gradation from 

 an example almost without spots on the underside to one having large 

 and well-developed spots (Proc. Sth. Lond. Ent. Soc, 1896, p. 52); 

 similarly, Turner showed six examples from Galway, presenting a 

 graduated series in the development of the spots on the underside, 

 from one with full set of well- developed spots to one with only a trace 

 of markings besides the discoidal spots on the forewings {op. cit., 1894, 



