112 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



has been so generally used for the Swiss mountain form, that Favre 

 was under some erroneous impression as to Frey having named 

 specially the mountain specimens with greenish-blue scaling, and the 

 name montana appears, therefore, to have originated with himself. 

 The form as described by Favre, merely differs from ahoides in that 

 the usual blue scales of the latter are, in this, greenish. It is evidently 

 Staudinger's alsoides, as he notes (Cat., 3rd ed., p. 89) the colour at 

 the base of the wings as "valde viridescens." Hofner notes (Schmett. 

 Kdrntens, p. 223) that " examples covered with greenish-blue scales at 

 the base of the upperside of the forewings, are found everywhere with 

 the type in Styria." Wheeler describes montana as " 24mm. -26mm. ; 

 an increase of greenish-blue scales on the upperside in the J ; the eye- 

 spots of the underside often larger; occurring generally, in moderately 

 high localities, but also a very usual form on the slopes above Lavey, 

 e.g., in May and June, 1902." 



t. var. magna, Buhl, "Pal. Gross-Schmett.," i., p. 766 (1895); Tutt, "Brit. 

 Butts.," p. 161 (1896); Staud., "Cat.," 3rd ed., p. 89 (1901).— Very large, above 

 wholly uniform black-brown in colour (almost black), without the least trace of 

 any blue scales. From Thibet, Kuku-noor (Riihl). 



Kuhl ascribes the name to Staudinger, and Staudinger to Riihl ; 

 most probably it originated as a MS. name in Staudinger's price lists. 

 Staudinger describes this race from Central Asia (Cat., 3rded., p. 89) as 

 " permagna supra unicolor nigrescens, vix nominanda." Our own 

 description in Brit. Butts., p. 161, is not quite accurate, in suggesting 

 that there may be some blue scales, which is not the case on the 

 original description. There is a nice series in the Brit. Mus. 

 coll., and we should merely call it a moderately large race, the 

 specimens coming from Mongolia and Thibet, and are labelled Urga, 

 Irkut, Changai mountains, and Amdo. With the exception of the 

 specimen from Urga, none of the examples have any trace of blue 

 scaling ; on this, however, under a lens, one detects blue scales towards 

 the base of the forewings ; it appears, nevertheless, to be of the same 

 racial form. 



k. var. howkowi, n. var. — Very large ; <$ well-scaled with blue basally and on 

 disc ; ? dark fuscous. Underside particularly white, with ill-developed spots (the 

 S in the Brit. Mus. coll., has none except the discoidal of the forewing). How- 

 Kow, Ta Chien Lu (Pratt and Leech coll.). 



This race, from extreme eastern Thibet and western China, is one 

 of the best-marked races represented in the fine series of this species 

 in the British Museum collection, being characterised not only by its 

 exceptional size, but also by its very remarkably pale and ill-marked 

 underside. 



A. var. (an spec, dist.) lorquinii, H.-Sch., " Sys. Bearb.," vi., p. 25, tigs. 442- 

 444 (1852); Gerh., "Mon. Schmett.," p. 9, pi. xiv., figs. Ba-c (1853); Kirby, 

 " Syn. Cat.," p. 372 (1871); Staud., " Cat.," 2nd ed., p. 13 (1871) ; [Sand, " Lep. 

 Ber. Auv.," p. 7 (1879) ;] Staud., " Stett. Ent. Zeit.," xlii., p. 284 (1881); Lang, 

 " Butts. Eur.," p. 129, pi. xxxi., rig. 4 (1884); Kane, "Eur. Butts.," p. 50 (1885); 

 Walker, "Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.," p. 374(1890); [Brom., " Lep. Kiv.," p. 42 

 (1892); ] Kuhl, "Pal. Gross-Schmett.," i., pp. 296, 766 (1892-5); Tutt, "Brit. 

 Butts.," p. 161 (1896); Staud., "Cat.," 3rd. ed., p. 89 (1901); Wheeler, '-Butts. 

 Switz.," etc., p. 24 (1903). Alsus var., Ramb., " Cat. Sys. Lep. And.," p. 42 

 (1858).— Mas, obscure creruleus, limbo late nigro, foemina nigrofusca, vix coeruleo- 

 griseo-adsperso ; parva. Size and shape of alsus, the only distinction consisting in 

 the beautiful dark blue ground colour of the upperside of the cf , with broad black 

 margin, which is broader than in the very nearly allied sebrus. This is distinctly 

 larger, has a lighter, more reddish, blue, and on all the wings beneath much more 



