!944] Genus Lycceides 111 
melissa Edwards : average to large, with H much smaller than 
F and smaller than U ; 
ismenias Meigen: fairly large to very large, with H much 
smaller than F and greater than U. 
From the arrangement on fig. 1 where selected examples of 
proportions are given, it will be seen that argyrognomon, coming 
from an ancestral structure from which agnata was also derived 
(and which on the basis of certain data provided by other genera 
I am tempted, being human, to furnish with certain characters, 
namely with H and U both equal to 0.2 and slightly smaller than 
the small F ) , produces two branches, which run parallel to each 
other in the general growth of parts. A complete sequence of 
intergrades (more complete than I originally thought) exists 
between argyrognomon and scudderi in the palearctic branch 
and between argyrognomon and subsolanus in the nearctic one; 
and I would not hesitate a moment to assign to subsolanus and 
scudderi a subspecific position within the polytypic argyro- 
gnomon had they not been centers radiating as it were their own 
forms and, on the other hand, had they been separated from 
melissa and ismenias respectively by a definite hiatus, which is 
not so, since racial intergrades (with a corresponding combina- 
tion of pattern and structure) exist here too. 
It may be added that the genus is distributed from the polar 
regions to just below latitude 40° in Europe and eastern North 
America, and to at least 30° in western North America and Asia. 
Its cradle is a lost country of plenty beyond the Arctic circle of 
today; its nurseries are the mountains of central Asia, the Alps, 
and the Rockies. Seldom more than two and never more than 
three species are known to occur in a given geographical region, 
and so far as records go, not more than two species have ever 
been seen frequenting the same puddle or the same flowery bank. 
When about to draw up detailed comparative descriptions of 
the numerous forms, some of them new, involved in my exami- 
nation of this genus, I was confronted by the fact that the pat- 
tern of the Lycaenidae had never been adequately analyzed by 
systematists. On the other hand, none of the works especially 
devoted to schemes of stripes or lines deal with that family nor 
can I adapt anything they contain to my needs, since pattern 
development and correspondence in design values are discussed 
