ARICIA MEDON. 245 



English form and var. artaxerxes, and that the name salmacis has 

 generally been loosely employed for all these gradations ; more 

 particularly, and quite incorrectly, for those in which the black discoidal 

 of the upperside of the forewing is entirety, or partially, surrounded 

 by white, a form which Harrison has very rightly distinguished as ab. 

 albiannulata, and transitions to which are by no means scarce else- 

 where than in the North of England, and are indeed to be found, 

 occasionally even in a pronounced form, on the Continent. There is 

 as great a variation in these northern specimens in the amount of 

 orange-red on the upperside as in var. artaxerxes, but it seems 

 unnecessary to name the different forms, as they can readily be 

 distinguished as artaxerxes-allous, artaxerxes-agestu, sahnads-agestis, 

 etc. ; Harrison's semi-attous (Ent. Bee, xviii., p. 236) is the form 

 incorrectly figured by Hribner as agestis (see p. 253). 



The headquarters of var. salmacis may be stated to be the county of 

 Durham, especially on the coast, but it is quite impossible to separate 

 the cases -in which authors have used the name in the strict sense of 

 Stephens' diagnosis, from those in which they have used it for the 

 parvipuncta and albiannulata forms of medon, since they generally 

 draw no distinction ; still less is it possible to separate specimens of 

 our ab. similis, since these are always included under salmacis. This 

 is of course natural, and was, so long as salmacis was regarded as a 

 distinct species, correct, as all the aberrational forms would be included 

 under the specific name ; yet it was but a short time after the 

 publication of the original descriptions that this was objected to by 

 Wailes (Entom. Mat/, i., p. 42, 1832) as being not only inadequate but 

 incorrect, since neither the black nor the white discoidal was peculiar 

 to either sex of the supposed species, and, in fact, the majority of those 

 possessing the latter were males. How entirely this wider signi- 

 fication of the name was accepted may be judged from two instances 

 of very different dates. The first is Newman's description quoted 

 above (p. 241) published in 1834, (Entom. May., ii., p. 515), the other 

 Barrett's observations on the subject published in 1893 (Lep. Brit. IsL, 

 i., p. 73), which are as follows : " This form of variation, [diminution 

 in the orange-red band] wmich occurs generally, becomes intensified 

 in the North of England, particularly on the Durham coast, the orange 

 spots of the upperside being commonly absent in the $ , and smaller 

 in the 2 , while a white edging has made its appearance round the 

 central black spot and the black spots of the underside are decidedly 

 smaller. This is the variety named salmacis by Stephens." As a 

 matter of fact, the albiannulata form is not referred to by Stephens at 

 all, though many authors have assumed it to be characteristic of var. 

 salmacis. It is first referred to by Wailes in 1832 (Entom. Mar/., i., 

 p. 42). In the wider sense salmacis has been taken frequently in all 

 the northern English counties, though it is commoner on the eastern 

 coast than in the west. It is reported as common at Richmond, 

 Yorks., Grange and Witherslack, Lanes., Arnside, Westmoreland, 

 and is recorded from Cumberland and from the Kendal district, as 

 w r ell as from many places on the Durham and Northumberland 

 coasts. In Scotland it has been found at Dumfries, and in Berwick- 

 shire at Dunse and St. Abb's Head, and occasionally appears else- 

 where with var. artaxerxes. Harrison states that only one out of 

 forty-five Scotch specimens in his possession was of this form. In 



