HYPERMNESTRA. By Dr. K. von Rosen. 
19 
This great disposition of polyxena to individual aberrations is opposed by a slight tendency to forming 
well discernible constant races. The first described polyxena Schiff. cb Den., from Lower Austria, Moravia, and 
Hungary, is beside the Eastern-Russian the lightest form, the black discal band of the fore wing (connection 
of the 5th costal spot with the exterior anal-marginal spot) is but very feebly developed, in many cases it is 
absent altogether. The much darker cassandra Hbb. (= creusa Meig.) exhibits shorter yellow crescents at the 
distal margin, the wings being rounder, too; the Southern-French form may be regarded as the type. — From 
Italy several so-called races have been described, such as reverdini Fruhst., from Liguria (surroundings of reverdini. 
Rapallo), (larger than latiaris Stick, and creusa Meig., yellow marking very light and extensive), nemorensis nemorensis. 
Vrty., a small race sharply contrasting with the large broad cassandra Hb., from the pine-woods on the coast 
of Toscana. According to the material at my disposal there is a dark form similar to cassandra (= creusa 
Meig.) and a lighter one in which the dark discal band of the forewing is always present though peculiarly diffuse, 
in great contrast with the pure yellow ground-colour. This form was already described from Petagna as hypsipyle 
F. (this name being synonymous with polyxena Schiff. & Den.) from Calabria (Aspromonte) and very well 
recognizably figured, it flies also in Central Italy and is to be named latiaris Stick, (type from the Albanian latiaris. 
Mts.). Italian explorers have stated that the darkened specimens have increased of late near Florence. — The 
very dark, broad-banded form from Sicily, latevittata Vrty. (— creusa Mann., creusa Dakl M. S.) is well worth latevittata. 
being named. — Whereas the specimens from South-Eastern Europe frequently incline to the ochracea-iov mation. 
there flies in Macedonia a form which is particularly darkened towards the base, with intense red spots on the 
forewing beneath, the ground-colour being invariably light yellow. I denominate it demnosia Frr., although demnosia. 
it was described from the coast of Fiume where even bright yellow specimens are said to occur ( chrysockroma 
Niep.). To demnosia Frr. I place albanica Riemel (from the district of Tirana) which was described after bred 
specimens, and thusnelda 0. Schultz from Thessaly. — In Southern Greece (Kalamata near the Taygetos Mts.) 
flies a darkened form with a bright yellow ground-colour and also above very intense red spotting: taygetana taygetana. 
subsp. nov. (1 d'? in the Munich State Collections, other specimens in the Coll. Ernst Pfeiffer, Munich), 
polymnia Mill., from Euboea, is particularly bright yellow and less darkened in the —The small form from polymnia 
Bithynia with a neat black marking and very narrow costal spots was denominated gracilis 0. Schultz. I am gracilis. 
unable to decide whether the species always occurs in this shape in Asia Minor. - The very light form from 
the Wolga (Saratow, Kamyschin), thesto Fruhst., is very well distinguished by the very feebly developed dark thesto. 
discal band of the forewing and the interior hindmarginal spot being more or less reduced. Rothschild (Nov. 
Zool. 25 (1918) p. 72) mentions a couple from the Talych on the Caspian Sea, which is large and intensely 
marked, the spots being as in ab. rufescens. No other forms have been reported so far to the south-east. 
Th. rumina L. To the forms enumerated in Vol. I, p. 17—-18 the following may be added now: rumina. 
andalusiana Stick, with reduced red spots above was described as a race, but it occurs among normally coloured andalusi- 
Andalusian specimens. In andalusica Ebb. the cell of the hindwing is partly filled with red and the red spots un y H i 1l ^'' a 
are much larger, whereby it corresponds to ab. honoratii of the Southern French form medesicaste III. — In 
derubescens Sclitz. the red colour above is reduced, since only the 5th costal spot on the forewing is centred red. derubescens . 
divisa Schtz. shows the 2nd costal spot of the forewing divided into two spots. — petheri Vrty. is an divisa. 
insignificant alpine race from the Sierra Nevada, approximating castiliana RuM, the black marking being intense, 2 pethcri. 
partly covered by whitish scales. — ornatissima Black, shows a red-centred spot also between the radius and omatissi- 
the 1st median branch - henrietta Timins, reported from Smyrna (probably a mistake), has still more red 
than ornatissima , so that it may coincide with honnoratii — In xanthe Schtz. (= mackeri Holl) the otherwise xanthe. 
red spots are yellowish The African form figured in Vol. I (pi. 10 a) though not named has been denominated 
in the meantine as: africana Stichel {= mauretanica Schtz., ornatior Black.)-, it is as a rule more intensely africana. 
coloured and more red-spotted than European specimens. Moreover, the North-African form of rumina varies 
a great deal, and beside the mentioned ornatissima we find nebulosa Holl and nigricans Holl as names for 
extremely dark or blurred specimens. — distorta Rotksch. refers to a specimen with abnormal (smooth) contours 
of the hindwing, and irregularis to a specimen with a projecting tooth in the marginal marking of the hindwing. 
6. Genus: Hypermnestra Men. (Ismene Nick.)*) 
Larva with 2 large frontal hooks, imago at the base of the forewing with a peculiar, hand-shaped, 
chitinous formation. Both these structures represent adaptations to the pupation in the earth. 
*) Cf. Le C erf Ann. Hist. Natur. Tome II, fasc. 2, Paris, Leroux 1913. In this excellent work to which unfortunately 
little attention is paid, the genera Hypermnestra, Thais, Parnassius, and Doritis are morphologically .compared. Hence it 
follows that these genera are allied to each other to such an extent that the establishment of the subfamilies Zerynthiinae and 
Parnassiinae is unjustified. In spite of the 5-branched radius, Dortis is certainly the most derivative genus and by no means 
closely allied with Parnassius. It is questionable which radial branch got lost in Hypermnestra and Parnassius. According to 
Le Cerf it is the first, to Rebel the third, to Stichel the fifth, but the latter opinion is probably incorrect. 
