HYLES EUPHORBIA. 211 



? from Namangan, differ so strikingly from the European specimens of this 

 species that they certainly deserve a name as a local form. They are, throughout, 

 more blue in tint, and the black of the marginal band of the hiadwings is not 

 sharply, but indistinctly black, dull, and, in a measure, grey-black. The ground- 

 colour of the forewings is a dirty (grey) sand-yellow, in the g somewhat tinged 

 with violet (not red) ; the olive-green basal and middle (costal) spots, as also 

 the broad outer band, are also somewhat weakly tinted with vellow, the latter, 

 indeed, only stands out little from the somewhat lighter violet-grey outer margin. 

 The underside is dull grey-yellow, in the $ , scarcely, but in the g tolerably 

 strongly, tinged with red, and one g has an entirely red outer margin like so 

 many European euphorMae. The head, thorax, and abdomen also of a weaker 

 olive-green than in our euphorbiae. The epaulettes are internally white-haired, 

 though, in two examples, only very slightly, and not nearly so strongly as in 

 D. mauretanica. Probably this pale uuicolorous var. centralasiae occurs only 

 in the low-lying sand-steppes, whilst the Central Asian euphorbiae from higher 

 ground may come nearer the European form. The colour of var. centralasiae 

 stands in a similar relation to euphorbiae as does D. bienerti, Staud., to D. 

 hippophaes, Esp., and I now hold the former to be a local (steppe) form of 

 hippophaes, for, although the Central Asian bienerti never shows the small black 

 dot at the end of the forewings which hippophaes always has, vet it shows 

 transitions in colour from one into the other, and, particularly, the larvae of bienerti, 

 are almost entirely like those of hippophaes. Distribution. —Asia : Samarkand, 

 Namangan (Staudinger), Pamir — Oche (Grum-Grshmailo). 



Bartel notes (Pal. Gross-Schmett, ii., p. 89) that this striking 

 local form is much paler than the type, and is recorded from 

 Turkestan : Samarkand, Namangan, Osch, and Fergana. It appears 

 in May, and is said in its limited steppe localities to be somewhat 

 common. Kaye observes that the only example in the British 

 Museum collection, is smaller, and with the fore- and hindwings much 

 more rounded than in typical H. euphorbiae. Both fore- and 

 hindwings, too, are much greener. The discoidal blotch is much 

 more rounded and distinct, and there is no mark beyond the blotch 

 near the costa. The black marginal band of hindwings is quite 

 even on the outer edge and well-curved, following the shape of 

 wing, although this is, in all the forms of H. euphorbiae, a much more 

 variable character. It is difficult on a single example to enter 

 into the question of the specific value of this insect. Piingeler ( Berl. 

 Ent. Zeits., xlvii., p. 237), on account of the great difference in the 

 preserved larvae which he possesses (from Askabad), is decidedly 

 of opinion that it is a good species, especially as H. euphorbiae also 

 occurs in the same neighbourhood. 



Staudinger treats the following as a local race of H. euphorbiae. 

 It appears to us to be, however, a distinct species, and we give the 

 diagnosis simply for reference — 



Hyles robertsi, Butl., " Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond.," 1880, p. 412, pi. xxxix., figs. 

 9-10 (1880) ; Staud., "Cat.," 3rd ed., p. 102 (1901). Dahlii, Hamps., " Ind. Moths," 

 i., p. 99 (1892). — Deilephila robertsi. ? . Primaries above much elongated (more 

 than in D. tithymalij ; chalky-white, with a snow-white basal spot, the markings 

 consisting of a large oblong subbasal patch, the costal border, a very large 

 subcostal patch beyond the cell (with a rectangular excision out of the infero- 

 exterior portion), and a broad discal belt, tapering towards the apex, bright olive ; 

 the second and third median veins white externally ; external border very slightly 

 tinted with lilacine, but scarcely perceptibly ; a black spot close to base of internal 

 border. Secondaries black, with brown costal border, a dull rose-red discal belt 

 commencing on the abdominal border in a large snow-white patch, as in D. 

 hippophaes ; external border pale flesh-tint, fringe white. Body olive, sides of head 

 and thorax, margins and fringe of tegulae, antennae, and anterior margins of ab- 

 dominal segments snow-white ; the three basal segments snow-white at the sides, 

 the two basal ones with the white area interrupted by large velvety-black spots. 

 Under surface pale sandy- greyish, with a paler discal belt on the wings ; primaries 



