84 



MELANARGIA GALATHEA. 



Marbled White. 



Galathea, Linn. Galatea, a njmph beloved by Acis and the horrible 

 Polyphemus. 



The wings of this, the only British- representative of the genus, expand 

 from one inch and three-quarters in the male, to two inches and a quarter in 

 the female. The ground colour is a creamy white, much marbled with black. 

 On the underside, the pale tint very much preponderates, much of the black 

 masses of the upper side being reduced to mere lines. The male has the 

 underside of the hind-wings of a much whiter shade, and the female of yel- 

 lower shade. It may be readily distinguished from the other Whites by 

 having only four walking legs, instead of the six which all the rest have, and 

 also by the eye-like spots, most visible on the underside. 



It is a variable species. Specimens have occurred almost perfectly white, 

 and others almost black, the latter are not common in Southern Europe, but 

 I have one taken at Dover, by Mr. Le Plastrier, and figured by the Rev. 

 T. Bree, in "Loudan's Magazine," for 1832. The upper wings are nearly 

 black above, except a large white spot near the base, and another tripartite 

 at the lower edge ; and beneath, both pairs are clouded with black, and 

 almost destitute of the usual angular tessellated markings. 



1 have another which differs from the type in the ground colour being of 

 a yellowish buff, with pale yellowish brown markings in lieu of black. This 

 is the var. b. of J. F. Stephen's " Illustrations." 



Specimens are also occasionally found in which the cream colour of the 

 wings is replaced by pure white. 



On the Continent, a curious form of the female is found, which Esper 

 called Leuco?nelas. It has the underside of the hindwings without the black 

 markings. The almost black form is called Turcica. Another form from the 

 south-east of Europe is called Procida, and which Dr. Staudinger describes 

 as obscurice. A fourth named variety is Galera, which wants the eyed spots. 

 In the second volume of the " Zoologist," Mr. Thomas Marshall writes, " I 

 took last July, on the heights between Dover and Walmer, a male of a clear 

 milky white colour, and has neither on the upper or underside of the wings 

 the smallest speck of black. Its thorax, body, and palpi are also entirely 

 clothed with white. The specimen is in perfect condition." 



The egg is large and ovate, and its shell looks like dull bone- white china, 

 being covered all over with very shallow rhomboidal network, with very tiny 

 knobs at the knots, and with a central patch of finer meshes on the top. — 

 Rev. J. Hellins. 



