MELITABA. By Dr. A. Serrz. 429 
with darker on the nervules. The under surface of the 3 a peculiar yellowish-grey, with the veins clear 
white, the termen of both wings, as well asthe basal area and, to a lesser extent also the median band, of 
the hindwings dull chocolate-brown, more rarely somewhat deeper fuscous. In most $¢ the brownish median 
band is almost obsolete, only the inner blackish edge remaining very distinct. The black markings as above, 
only more faint. 92: Under surface of the forewings, on the hindwings the basal area, a postmedian band 
and the termen chocolate-red, the intervening parts of the hindwings pale fulvous; the median row of spots 
ditfusely black. The head dirty brownish, in the 29 clothed with red-brown hair; palpi above covered with 
red-brown, beneath with yellowish-brown hair. Antennae above blackish, towards the base whitish-grey, the 
clubs short, spoon-shaped, brownish beneath, blackish above. Thorax clothed with dusky greyish-green hair, 
abdomen dark above, dirty brownish-yellow underneath (StauDINGER). 
A. cora Lucas. One specimen (type), taken by Gay in the Cordillera of Peru, in the Natural History 
Museum at Paris. In size approaching the smallest specimens of inca (1,0’’); the wings similarly formed as 
in this and modesta; forewings elongate, pointed, oval, hindwings almost round. Upper surface pale greyish- 
brown with greenish tone, only the terminal portion suffused with cinnamon-brown; both wings have the 
basal area pretty broadly obscured with fuscous; the markings faint and diffuse, formed in the inner half of 
the forewings of isolated striae of pale blackish-brown; the postdiscal spots small, pretty regular; the 
submarginal spots oval, almost united to a band, the terminal lines barely visible. On the hindwings the 
markings of the inner half almost obsolete, in the distal half as on the forewings, if anything even fainter 
and more indistinct. The colour of the under surface brownish-buff; on the forewings the cell and discal 
area delicately marked with brownish; the apical area and the upper portion of the termen dark ferru- 
ginous, cut up into broad arrow-shaped spots by the whitish veins. Also on the hindwings the pale ground 
is in a most characteristic manner interrupted by more or less complete dentate macular bands of dark 
ferruginous made up of sharply sagittate spots which are deeply notched at the outer end and pointing towards 
the base, separated by the veins which are, especially in the outer half, broadly white. The cell is almost 
completely filled with them, only the apex and a small patch in the middle remaining white; toward the base 
a number of similar spots. The median and postdiscal rows are, between the upper median and lower 
radial, interrupted by streaks of the ground-colour, whereas the marginal band is complete. Fringe very 
long, yellowish-white, on both sides marked with black on the nerves, the black spots united with the blackish 
extremity of the veins. From near Cuzco (Guamanga), Peru. 

There remains to be added that there still are a few other forms of American Argynnis that have recei- 
ved separate names, and which we regard as accidental colour-aberrations. Thus A. letis Wr. from the 
Western United States, a form of A. leto (86 b), has the apex of the forewings and the entire outer half of 
the hindwings uniformly fulvous, without hardly any markings. — A. lawra(87b) ab. lawrina Wr. lacks on 
the under surface the silvery spots, being related to the main form somewhat as cleodoxwa is to A. adippe. 
3. Genus: Melitaea P. 
This genus is confined to the northern temperate regions of the Harth, being quite equally distributed 
over the Eastern and Western Hemisphere, each of which is inhabited by about 30 species. If in Vol. 1, I 
have enumerated as many as 170 Palaearctic forms, that is ever so many more than are known from Ame- 
rica, it is only due to the fact that in the Palaearctic species every Melanism and every variation of the 
bands gave rise to anew name; following this method, it would indeed be easy to equally increase the number 
of American Melitaea forms. 
In structure the genus in some respects closely follows Argynnis, having, like this, the clubs of. the 
antennae flattened, slightly concave; but the palpi are not swollen, but instead densely clothed with tufts 
of hair underneath, with the middle joint somewhat distented, still on the whole rather slender. Less im- 
portant seems the venation; it is generally stated, that Argynnis has the cell of the hindwings always 
closed, whereas Melitaea has it open; but a close examination will reveal also in many Melitaea traces of a 
lower discocellular vein closing the cell. 
From the very similar group of Phyciodes s. s. Melitaea cannot be distinguished by any constant 
characteristics, even the most painstaking anatomical examination or even their biology revealing such. 
From Eresia, however, they deviate in that the species belonging to that genus probably without exception 
are mimetic forms, copying Heliconids, Danaids or Acraeids, whereas not one species of Melitaea is known 
to copy any other butterfly; even in Melitaea acraeina Stgr. which received its name from a most superficial 
resemblance to an Acraea, Mimicry seems out of the question, as I have already shown in Vol. 1,. p. 218. 
cora. 
