280 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



Entomological Society, August 1st, 1893 (Sequeira), and small 

 specimens, below 30mm., are not rare, especially among those bred 

 in confinement. We would call those below 30mm. in expanse, ab. 

 minor, n. ab., those above 40mm., ab. major, n. ab. The western 

 and central Asiatic specimens are' no larger than normal European 

 examples, but the eastern are of enormous size, and in crassa and elwesi 

 reach a wing expanse of 50mm. -54mm. The undersides of this species, 

 apart from the large eastern races, may be said to be, within certain 

 limits, exceedingly variable, those of the males, on the whole, much 

 paler than those of the females, the females much redder and more 

 orange, the hindwings being particularly deeply coloured. The rec mar- 

 ginal band of the hindwings is much more brilliant in the females than 

 males ; in the females, it is usually distinctly continued as a red band on 

 the margin of the forewings; in the males, scarcely ever reaching red, 

 the best developed examples being of a deep orange. There is also 

 considerable variation in the amount of white surrounding the discoidal 

 lunule of the forewings; some have no white ; also in the length, direc- 

 tion, and intensity of the broken, white, transverse line on the forewings. 

 There is also much difference in the intensity and direction of the 

 outer white line on the hindwings, but less so than in that of the inner 

 white line of the hindwing, which is particularly variable ; frequently 

 these two lines are complete, and the included area is darker than 

 the rest of the wing, forming a well-defined transverse band = ab. 

 viryata, n. ab. The discoidal lunule of the hindwing often makes 

 some complications in the character of this inner line, and Eaynor 

 notes (in litt.) a female aberration in the " Hanbury coll.," in which 

 the inner white line on the underside of the hindwings is curved 

 upwards at the bottom in the form of a hook = ab. uncilinea, n. ab. 

 He also notes a female, the underside of reddish-fulvous ground colour, 

 in which the forewings have the usual transverse orange-brownish 

 stripe, reduced to a single dark line edged with white; bred from 

 Mundon, August 10th, 1901. There is also some little variation in 

 the development of the small black anal spot as well as that inside 

 the base of the tail. Mosley gives (lllus. Vars. Brit. Lep., pt. 6, 

 Thecla, pi. i., fig. 2) a figure of a specimen of this species with "ground 

 colour beneath, as in Bithys querciis" and adds that "Mr. Bond, to 

 whom the specimen belonged, thought it might be a hybrid between 

 the two species ! ! ! " It appears to be an unusual form, in which the 

 ground colour of the underside is grey, the brown confined to the outer 

 margin of all the wings, the banded area between the white transverse 

 lines, and the extreme base. Certainly, except the unusual ground 

 colour, the underside is distinctly that of li. betulae, and it bears no 

 resemblance whatever to that of B. guercus. There is some variation 

 in this species in the length of the tail ; on the whole, those of the 

 females are longer than those of the males. The following are the 

 already described European aberrations : 



a. ab. sjiinosac, Gerh., " Schmett.," p. 3, pi. iii., fig. 2 (1853); Kirby, 

 "Cat.," p. 403 (1871); Riihl," Pal. Gross-Sehmett.," i., p. 170 (1892); Tutt, 

 "Brit. Butts.," p. 203 (1896;; Wheeler, "Butts. Switz.," p. 17 (1903)-- This 

 interesting <$ form has the same yellow spots on the forewing as the 2 , like the 

 var. lynceus of spini. The aberration is found everywhere with the type, but 

 nowhere common. Of thirty c? s bred from larva* only three were of this form 

 (Gerhard). 



The form of the male in which the female markings are moderately 



