338 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



considerably from the type in the female, in that the ground colour of boeticus is 

 blackish-brown, and the broad blue spot of a shining dark blue tint, whilst the ground 

 colour of armeniensis is greyish-brown, the blue spot being only indicated by an 

 irregular dusting of pale blue. On the hindwings the five black, pale-bordered, 

 marginal eye-spots are preceded by an extra row of five or six white spots. In the 

 male the blue is paler than in boeticus, the underside is also paler. Taken by 

 Becker at Krasnovodsk. 



The female appears to be a slight modification of our ab. caerulea- 

 fasciata, of greyer (paler) ground colour, and poorly-developed scaling ; 

 one suspects it to be a mere aberration rather' than a' local race. 

 There is variation everywhere in the ground colour, as well as in the 

 shade of the blue colour, but the remarkable point concerning the 

 variation of this species is that nowhere does it really tend to form 

 any well-defined local race. 



j3. var. damoetes, Fab., " Sys. Ent.," p. 526 (1775) ; " Spec. Ins.," p. 124 

 (1781); "Mant. Ins.," p. 77 (1787); Don., "Ins. New Holl.," pi. xxxi., fig. 2 

 (1805) ; Butl., " Cat. Fab. Lep. Brit. Mus.," p. 165 (1869)i— Papilio P.R. damoetes, 

 alis integerrimis, fuscis subtus cinereo-undatis ; posticis „ocello gemino aurato. 

 Parvus ex hac familia, alas omnes integerrimce, supra fusca?, immaeulatas, subtus 

 grisea?, cinereoundatse. Ocelli duo atri, annulo antice flavo, postice auro cincti, 

 interiore minore ad angulum ani. Habitat in Nova Hollandia, Mus. Banks 

 (Fabricius). 



This is a fuscous form with a mere trace of blue shading. The 

 type example has the "tails" broken off, a fact that accounts 

 for the wings being said to be " integerrimse." It is in the 

 " Banks Coll.," in the British Museum, and is a small example 

 of the Australian form, in very bad condition, without body, and 

 with the right hindwing almost entirely absent. It has a mere shade 

 of blue on the upperside, thus accounting for Fabricius' colour descrip- 

 tion "fuscus." It is set as "an underside," the latter being of a rather 

 dark brownish colour, the pale, waved, transverse lines rather narrow, 

 the hindwings only showing of these, conspicuously, the transverse 

 band at some little distance from the hindmargin. It is labelled in 

 Fabricius' handwriting, " Papilio P. B. damoetes, ' Fab. Entom.,' p. 

 526, no. 350," with a further note, " In Nova Hollandia (Australia), 

 Fabr. ' Syst. Ent.' " The fact that one hindwing is largely missing, 

 and the other without a tail, accounts for the Fabrician statement that 

 the wings are " integerrimse." Butler says (Cat., p. 165) that " Dono- 

 van's figure of damoetes is scarcely intelligible." So far as the name 

 has any value, it should be considered as comprising the small 

 specimens of the Australasian race, the $ with little blue, and the 

 underside of an exceptionally dark brownish tint. 



7. var. taitensis, Bdv., " Voyg. Astrolabe," p. 77 (1832). — Alis pallide violaceis ; 

 posticis caudatis ; omnibus subtus pallide albidis strigis obsoletis obscurioribus 

 maculaque nigra ad originem caudse. Ailes d'un violet pale , les inferieures avec 

 une queue ; dessous des quatre d'un blanchatre pale, avec des raies plus obscures, 

 pen prononcees, et une petite tache noire a L'origine de la queue. II est de la, 

 taille de Catoehrysops boeticus — Taiti. 



The specimen in the Brit. Mus. is a $ , somewhat worn, with a tinge 

 of violet in a good light, and a series of pale arches parallel with 

 the outer margin of hindwings. The anal spot is very poorly 

 developed, the second one rather better. It is labelled " Espirito 

 Santo. New Hebrides, 6, viii. '75." 



Oviposition. — In June and July, 1906, I saw a good many Lam- 

 fides boeticiiH in Galicia (north-west Spain), and observed several 



