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Show 1881.] OF AMURLAND, NORTH CHINA, AND JAPAN. 879 characters I can perceive in a Shanghai specimen before me, but do not consider them of much importance. Chinese specimens in Dr. Staudinger's collection are more like R. aspasia ; and Bremer states that a Chinese specimen he examined agrees with R. rhamni; so that the differences are evidently not constant. The Himalayan form distinguished as R. nipalensis is known by its bright colour, and by the wings having the marginal spots more conspicuous than usual in R. rhamni, which, however, it resembles more in colour and shape than it does R. aspasia. Butler includes both R. nipalensis and R. aspasia as distinct species in his list of Maries's Nikko collection (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vii. p. 133); so that the result of a comparison of authorities is clearly to show that not one of these forms is constant in any one locality, though no one has been able to bring together a sufficient series to prove this. Blanchard, in Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, vol. lxxii. p. 810, mentions, though he does not fully describe, two species of Iihodocera from Moupin, one of which, It. amintha, is a third larger than B. rhamni; and the other, 11. alvinda, is said to be very near R. aspasia and R. rhamni. COLIAS PALCENO, Linn. Faun. Suec. p. 272. ? C. pallens, Butl. Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. ix. p. 50. Found in various parts of the Amur countries, and in the mountains of Central Japan at 7000 feet elevatiou. Both sexes agree perfectly with European specimens. The type of C. pallens, Butl., from Hakodadi, which I have examined, is a miserably worn faded specimen, of no value for scientific purposes, and may be either a female of this or a small pale C. hyale. COLIAS HYALE, Linn. Syst. Nat. x. p. 469. 1 C.poliographus, Motsch. Et. Ent. p. 29 (1860). C. simoda, De l'Orza, Lep. Jap. p. 16 (1869). 1 C. nereine, Fisch., Motsch. Et. Ent. p. 29. C. erate, Esp., Murray, Ent. M . Mag. 1876, p. 34. C. erate ab helictha, Led., Brem. Ost-Sib., Nachtrag, p. 93. C. suBaurata, Butl. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vii. p. 138. G. elwesii, Butl. loc. cit. p. 135. The number of names under which the forms of this type found in Japan have been mentioned by various authors show the difficulty in dealing with them. I have already given m y opinion on the question in the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1880, p. 144, and further in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. vii. p. 464. I will say no more, except that the form of C. hyale which is usually known as C. simoda occurs abundantly in Japan, at Askold, though apparently not generally in Amurland, and also at Pekin and Shanghai, the specimens agreeing well with the ordinary Japanese type. |