154 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



angulated row of paler spots beyond the middle of the forewings, and 

 a corresponding transverse row across hindwings ; a pale discal spot on 

 fore- and hindwings. [These spots almost identical in size, position 

 and arrangement with those of Augiades sylvanus.] Underside greyish- 

 fulvous or yellowish ; the hindwings and apex of forewings spotted, 

 the former with a conspicuous band of somewhat squarish white 

 spots. 



Sexual dimorphism. — The sexual variation is very distinct in this 

 species. The 2 s (a large number being compared) average from 

 5mm. -7mm. larger than the $ s, and are distinctly heavier in 

 build. The $ has a deep velvety-black discal streak, placed 

 obliquely across the centre of the wing, below the median nervure. It 

 hugs the latter, however, towards the base, more closely than in A. 

 sylvanus, and the androconial scales show as a silvery line therein. 

 This is almost all that one notices with the naked eye, but "if one 

 examines the patch with a magnifying power of 30 (fig. 21), one finds 

 that it consists of three different parts : (1) A smaller part which lies 

 in cell lb and is separated by the second vein from (2) a larger part 

 which lies in the cell close to the hinder median vein, and (3) a long, 

 narrow part, somewhat broader outwards, which stands on the hind 

 median vein and also a little into the cell, and suddenly stops at the 

 point of origin of veins 3 and 4. The first two divisions are pretty 

 similar to one another in formation. They consist, namely, of very 

 closely appressed, highly characteristic androconia, which are placed in 

 a hollow or depression corresponding with the size and form of the 

 surface. The margins of this depression are clothed with large, 

 silvery-grey "covering-scales," whose tips converge so that they com- 

 pletely cover the surface formed by the tips of the androconia, or leave 

 open between them only a narrow slit through which one can see the 

 tips (compare fig. 21) of the coal-black androconia. As the covering 

 scales are, in different specimens, sometimes quite closed, sometimes 

 pretty well separated from one another, it is probable that the insect 

 can separate them or lay them one over the other as it likes, in order 

 to expose or to cover the delicate androconia. It is just these covering- 

 scales that produce the silvery stripe of the black "comma" which 

 characterises this species. The third part of the $ patch is of a 

 velvety-black colour distinctly inclining towards brown, and consists of 

 vertically-placed scales which are of a beautiful wedge-shape with 2-3 

 toothed points, and, below, run uninterruptedly into the stalk. In their 

 structure, they appear to resemble the ordinary scales, but their strong 

 pigmentation, vertical position, and different arrangement, almost seem 

 to me to indicate a special purpose, more or less analogous with that 

 of the rest of the androconia. In the form of their base they also 

 differ from the known type of normal scales in the Rhopalocera. 

 Their length is 0*22mm.-O36mm., and their breadth O027mm.- 

 O031mm. In cells lb and 2, just outside the $ patch, the yellow 

 wing-scales are larger, somewhat more erect, with tips bent down, so 

 that in certain lights they give this part of the wing a distinct gloss. 

 The peculiar androconia already mentioned (fig. 19) show a very surprising 

 formation. They are cylindrical, hair-like, composed of a great number of 

 members (or segments), which fall apart at the least touch. Hence it 

 comes about that the sole author who discusses the build of the patch 

 states that it consists of a fine black powder. At first I also could not 



