NISONIADES TAGES. 269 



Europe and Asia Minor as a constant aberration of the summer brood, and is 

 certainly sufficiently distinct to be called ab. clarus (Caradja). 



Without actual examples one can hardly tell what this aberration 

 is, from the description " very light grey in colour," exactly resembling 

 "two remarkably pale specimens from Amasia." Is the ground 

 colour grey, or is the grey due to surface scaling ? It appears, 

 however, to be possibly an aberrative form leading up to the eastern 

 race, sinina, Gr.-Grsh. (see infra). 



e. var. popoviana, Nordm., " Bull. Mosc," iv., p. 443, pi. xii., figs. 3, 4 (1851) ; 

 Alph., "Iris," vii., p. 303, in part (1894); Ruhl, "Pal. Gross-Schmett.," p. 682 

 (1895) ; Tutt, " Brit. Butts.," p. 121 (1896) ; Stand., " Cat.," 3rd ed., p. 98, in part 

 (1901). Popovianus, Staud., " Cat.," 2nd ed., p. 34 (1871). — Alas integra?, ciliis 

 immaculatis, limbo inter cost'as expresse albo-punctato, macula? fascia? media? alarum 

 posteriorum supra et subtus minuta?, distincta? et separatee, cilia alarum anteriorum 

 fusco-cinerea, posteriorum albida. This insect belongs to the tages section but, 

 differs from that species. The ground colour is a dark grey-green, not grey-brown, 

 as in tages, with the black and white areas sharply distinct. The fringes of the 

 forewings are dark grey above, those of the hindwings pure white. The small but 

 very distinct spots on the edge of the wings are limited by a deep black line on the 

 outside ; the white spots on the underside lie in an area of a very uniform dark 

 grey-green ground colour. In the neighbourhood of Kjachta, captured by Herr 

 Popoff (Nordmann). 



Staudinger unites this variety with the sinina of Grum-Grshimailo, 

 although the latter notes nothing of the grey-green ground colour 

 stated to be characteristic of this form. For the convenience of 

 students we have kept the two descriptions separate. Staudinger gives 

 the combined distribution of popoviana and sinina as "Dahuria (south- 

 east Siberia), Amurland, North China, Asia Minor (v.), eastern 

 Nan Shan." 



£". var. sinina, Gr.-Gr., "Hor. Soc. Ent. Ross.," xxv., p. 461 (1890-91) ; Leech, 

 " Butts. China," p. 661 (1892). Popoviana, Alph., " Iris," vii., p. 303, in part (1894); 

 Staud., " Cat.," 3rd ed., p. 98, in part (1901). — Alis supra et subtus pallidioribus, 

 griseo atomatis, maculis submarginalibus albis, ceteris distinctissirnis. Fimbria 

 multo pallidiore. In montibus ad Dongar Aschen detectus (Grum-Grshimailo). 



According to Staudinger (Cat., 3rd ed., p. 98) this is the same as 

 popoviana, Nordm., but Grum-Grshimailo notes nothing concerning 

 the grey-green colour stated to be characteristic of popoviana (see 

 supra). Staudinger diagnoses it (op. cit.) as: "Alis punctis ante- 

 marginalibus albis distinctissirnis; alis posterioribus ciliis albicanti- 

 bus." Alpheraky notes (Iris, vii., p. 303) that "this form has been 

 taken in numbers by Grum-Grshimailo in the Sinian Alps, where it 

 appears to replace the type. It is found rarely as an aberration in 

 other countries, and he has, he says, before him, a very large and 

 beautiful ? of this form, taken in Borjom, in Transcaucasia. It is 

 probable that the specimens from Amurland, as well as those from 

 Asia Minor, referred to by Staudinger (Rom. Mem. Lep., vi., p. 219) 

 are intermediate between the type and var. popoviana." At least the 

 Asia Minor examples would appear to belong to ab. clarus, Car. (supra). 

 Staudinger says (op. cit.) : "According to Bremer, Radde found this 

 species on the Schilka and the Amur, where it is evidently local and rare. 

 Herz discovered the insect sparingly in China, and these specimens are 

 very different from the European examples, in that they have a 

 conspicuous row of white spots on the underside. In specimens from 

 Asia Minor these spots already appear to show distinctly." Leech says 

 that these north Chinese examples, mentioned by Staudinger, appear 

 to agree with the var. sinina, as described by Grum-Grshimailo, the 

 latter collector having sent him specimens for comparison. 



