COLIAS. 



435 



character appears to be more frequent in tlic male, but is quite independent 

 of change in the other markings. In some specimens the black discoidal 

 spot of primaries is sprinkled with orange scales (fig. 6, Japan), in one 

 example, also from Japan, the discoidal spot is dingy orange sparsely scaled 

 with black, and in a specimen from Chia-ting-fu this spot on left fore wing 

 has the lower portion orange, as on secondaries, and the upper portion black. 



Two females from Japan and one from Chang-yang are suffused with orange 

 (fig. 11, Japan) ; other forms of the female are represented by figures 5, 12, 

 and 13. The yellowish suffused specimen from China might be considered 

 as a hybrid between C. hyale and C. Jieldii, but there is no possibility that 

 the Japanese examples of the same form could be hybrids, as C.Jieldii does 

 not occur in that country. 



Ehvesi is a large pale form of C. hyale commonly found in Japan. 

 Fallens^ on the other hand, is a small form of the species, the type of 

 which, in the National Collection, has the apical markings of primaries and 

 those on outer margin of secondaries paler than Butler's figure (Lep. Exot. 

 xxxiv. fig. 8) ; I have a similar specimen from Hakodate and others from 

 Japan which are intermediate between it and typical hyale. 



Poliographus and simoda are identical forms, and do not differ in any 

 marked manner from elwesi. Suhaurata has the under surface rather 

 orange, as is not infrequently the case in specimens of hyale from Eastern 

 Asia, but does not differ in any important particular from typical hyale. 

 None of these names appear to me worth retaining, as the forms to which 

 they apply are certainly not constant, neither are they peculiar to any district 

 or locality. I may mention that in 1886 I found poliographus, suhaurata, 

 and elwesi together in one spot near Nagahama, and of six pairs which I 

 took in copuld, only two pairs were of the same form in both sexes. 



Pryer {I. c.) observes of this species that it is " one of the most abundant 

 butterflies about Yokohama, and is the first harbinger of spring. It may 

 often be seen flying about a warm sunny bank by the middle of February, 

 when the snow is still on the ground. These are not hibernated specimens, 

 but freshly emerged, as I have often taken them then with their wings hardly 



dry The difference between a summer and a winter specimen is 



most marked, both in colour and size." 



Some of the specimens from China agree almost exactly with certain 

 examples of G. erate from Russia in my collection, and I am quite inclined 



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