CALLOPHRYS RUBI. 97 



like European specimens, the hindwings rather less toothed, and rather smaller on an 

 average. Four g s (including one from Saisan) are, however, so different that they 

 might be a distinct species, or possibly another brood. I call this form suaveola, 

 and regret that I have sent away other examples just like them as rubi var. These 

 four suaveola are all considerably larger than the true rubi of the locality, and like 

 very large European specimens. The dark upperside is duller, not so brownish, 

 and the green underside also lighter, more verdigris-green, but this also occurs 

 sometimes in European specimens. It appears also to be quite an unimportant 

 feature that the white dots of the underside are wanting, except one on the costa of 

 the hindwings, since this is. also almost always the case with the true rubi of this 

 locality ; whilst I also consider it unimportant that the oval male spot above the 

 discoidal cell of the forewings is larger, and, in three specimens at least, much 

 lighter in tint and very conspicuous in suaveola. Another imimportant character 

 is that the palpi are quite green on the sides, though this is not the case, or only 

 veiy slightly so, in the ordinary rubi. But it is very remarkable that the hindwings 

 in suaveola are almost smoothly rounded, i.e., without the tail-like appendage at 

 the anal angle, which rubi (also those from the same localities) exhibits very 

 distinctly. Could this be entirely lost there in a second brood ? In dumetorum, 

 Boisd., from California, which I consider to be certainly only a local form of our 

 rubi, it is (in quite good specimens) always present. Careful observations on the 

 spot and a larger amount of material will, perhaps, enable us to decide later 

 whether this suaveola, which I doubtfully call a variety of rubi, is really a distinct 

 species (Staudinger). 



Staudinger seems to have quite satisfied himself of the varietal 

 value of this form, for he no longer queried it in 1901 [Cat., 3rd ed., 

 p. 70), where he diagnosed it as " major, subtus pallidior, alis posticis 

 acaudatis. Tarbagatai Mts., Ala Tau, Fergana." Eiihl records it as 

 being " of the size of the largest European examples. The upperside 

 paler, i.e., not so brown; the green underside also paler. The margin 

 of the hindwings entire, and without the small tail-like appendage 

 at the anal angle that characterises 0. rubi.'" Staudinger notes 

 the upperside as "darker" (supra). Elwes observes (Trans. Ent. 

 Soc. Lond., 1901, p. 89) that " a specimen from Bloudan in the 

 Lebanon, and another example from North Syria, agree with the var. 

 suaveola from Turkestan described by Staudinger." He adds that he has 

 " no Turkestan specimens for comparison, but a pair from North Persia, 

 taken by Christoph, are much like this, whilst one taken by Mrs. Nicholl, 

 at The Cedars of Lebanon, is like the common form." 



d. var. (et ab.) suffusa, n. ab.— Ground colour blackish-grey (approaching that 

 of S. w-album); fringes white — Astrabad, Shakhuh. Another from southeast Altai 

 — Tchuja Valley, nearly black, indistinguishable from dumetorum of Yosemite 

 Valley. Other examples from Bagovitza, Podolia (Grum-Grshimailo) , Jaice, 3000ft. 

 (Elwes), the Valais (Anderegg) (Brit. Mus. Coll.). 



The nature of the green colouring of the underside of Callo- 

 phrys rubi. — The fact that the underside of this species is of a brown 

 colour when it emerges from the pupa, and remains so indefinitely if the 

 newly-emerged insect be kept in a damp atmosphere, and only becomes 

 green when the wing dries, has long been known to lepidopfcerists, and we 

 referred to the peculiar character exhibited by this, and what appeared 

 to be allied "greens" of other species, in The British Noctuae and their 

 Varieties, ii., p. xvi, where we pointed out that, if the colour were pig- 

 mentary in origin, it showed a quite normal and natural sequence in 

 its changes, and, at the same time, suggested that if it were not so, 

 then it was possible that the presence of vapour deposited on the 

 scales altered the effect produced when the light fell upon them. 

 Perry- Coste says (Entom., xxiii., p. 371) that the use of almost any 

 reagent changed the green of the underside to a brown tint, similar to 

 that Dormal for the upperside, and hence classed it as "a good instance 



