108 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



p. 50). The normal number of spots in the median series of the 

 underside of the forewing is seven, and in that of the hind wing nine ; 

 the spots being counted from the costal edge to the anal angle 1,2, 3, 

 4, 5, 6, 7, and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 respectively. There is some- 

 times a vague trace of a hind-marginal series of compound spots, 

 often fairly distinct in British examples. The median row on 

 the forewings sometimes numbers eight spots, the supplementary 

 spot being found on the costa. Those examples with the normal 

 number of spots exceptionally large and well-developed we call ab. 

 magnipuncta, n. ab. ; those with the normal number, but very small, 

 and the marginal rings usually lost in the groundcolour, we call oh.parvi- 

 puncta, n. ab. In the obsoletely-marked examples those spots nearest 

 the costa seem to disappear first — becoming 6, 5, 4 and 3 in this 

 direction on the fore wings. Those of the hindwings frequently dis- 

 appear by a general reduction of all the spots to vanishing point, 

 those of the forewing remaining normal or nearly so = ab. semiobsoleta, 

 n. ab. Pickett records (Proc. 8th. Land. Ent. Soc, 1902, 144) an 

 example in which the spots on the underside of the right pair of wings 

 are obsolete, those of the left pair being normal. The extreme form, 

 i.e., that on which all the spots except the discoidals are wanting, 

 are very rare = ab. extrema, n. ab. ; Dennis records one from Horsley, 

 and a similar $ is recorded (Ent. Ver. Dresd.) as being taken near 

 Dresden, the underside being entirely without ocellated spots. 

 Another very important feature in the underside spotting is also 

 noticeable, viz., that, instead of the submedian transverse row of spots 

 being arranged in continuous series across the underside of the 

 forewings, an occasional specimen has the two lowest ones, those 

 nearest the inner margin, strikingly placed out of line from the rest of 

 the series, forming the bent row (une marche d'escalier) that so 

 characteristically separates Everes alcetas from E. argiades : this form 

 we call ab. alcetoides, n. ab. ; specimens labelled " England " and 

 " Jena " are in the British Museum coll., and Blachier records a 

 similar one from the Mont Saleve. The little black marginal point, 

 near the anal angle of the hindwings beneath, situated in cellule 2, 

 just inside the fringe, is very strongly marked in some Alpine 

 examples, and is the characteristic feature in Bergstrasser's figure of 

 the ab. pseudolus. The most striking underside of all the local races 

 of this species is that of var. howkowi, which is white and almost 

 spotless, and again reminds one somewhat of the parallel underside 

 of Everes amyntida. The following appear to be the chief named 

 forms : — 



(?) a. ab. minutus, Esp., "Eur. Schmett.," i., supp. p. 71, ii., pi. cvi. (contd. 

 lxi.), fig. 8 (1787) ; Heydrch., "Cat.," p. 13 (1851).- P.P.E. minutus.— Alls 

 ecaudatis, supra airo-caeruleis, ciliis nigro-alboque tesselatis crenatisque ; subtus 

 cinereo canulescentibus, omnibus ocello medio unico, marginalibus quinis. We 

 had hitherto regarded Papilio minimus and tiresias as the two smallest European 

 butterflies, but now one of this very aberrant genus has occurred of even smaller 

 size. The butterfly here figured is sufficiently distinct from P. tiresias, it has 

 neither the ocellations nor the hair-like process at the anal angle of the hindwings; 

 it comes, however, nearer to minimus. Still, in this case, the upperside is more 

 decidedly overlaid with blue, in the other (minimus) it is more mixed with the 

 grey. The outer margin of the forewing is more rounded, and is edged with a 

 border (i.e., fringe) of alternate black and white, which is cut out in the shape of a 

 hood, the black standing out prominently in the rounded indentations. P. 

 minimus has, on the other hand, even fringes of an unicolorous grey or blackish. 



