( 165 ) 
XXIY. 
NOTES ON VARIATION IN MELITAEA AURINIA {ARTEMIS). 
By Y. P. Kitchin, B.A. 
Read at Watford, 29th March, 1905. 
PLATE IV. 
I hate been asked by one of our Secretaries to write a short 
paper with the object of pointing out the chief tendencies to 
variation in Melitcea aurinia, as noted from my series of 110 Irish 
specimens. 
The typical Irish form, as is probably known to members of the 
Society, is more highly-coloured and therefore handsomer than 
the English type. Eig. 12 shows the usual Irish form. This 
greater brilliancy is due principally to the yellow bands, patches, 
and spots being generally free from that suffusion of the reddish- 
brown ground - colour which tones them down in the English 
specimens. 
Variations in General Appearance. —The ground-colour of the 
wings varies from pale dull reddish-brown to chestnut, and seems 
generally to gain in tone by force of contrast with the clear yellow 
of the bands and spots and the deep black of their outlines. There 
are three principal variations in general appearance, according as 
either the chestnut, or the yellow, or the black predominates. In 
some specimens the total area of yellow in the wings is very great 
(see fig. 11), being supplemented by a fuller development of the 
extra row of yellow splashes between the wing-nervures towards 
the hind-margin, which is as a rule only faintly indicated in 
English specimens, and by the restriction in width of the black 
outlines and bands. Other individuals show a great increase in the 
black area ; the bands and outlines are heavy and monopolise much 
space that should be yellow or chestnut (see fig. 2). A. few only 
in the series of 110 Irish specimens show a tendency towards the 
suffused yellow of the English types. 
So much for general variation. I will now attempt to describe 
a few more specific cases. 
Variations of the Upper Wing. —The only variety of which 
I have been able to discover the name is that called ab. virgata 
(see fig. 1). In this the black band dividing the yellow patch 
near the middle of the costa is wanting. I have also specimens 
graduating from a very thin band to spots between the nervures; 
others show mere traces of the band. The opposite extreme is 
reached in fig. 2, in which the black band has usurped a goodly 
proportion of the yellow patch. This same band is sometimes 
suffused with red at the edges, the suffusion occasionally extending 
over the inner portion of the yellow patch. 
Another band which varies greatly is that which crosses the 
yellow patch on the hind-margin. It is sometimes very broad 
