Boros István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 7. (Budapest 1956)

Kovács, L.: Some data concerning the subspecific distribution of Colias chrysotheme Esp. (Lepidoptera)

almost wholly in the backround. It is a much more important fact that the form of the fore wing conforms essentially with that of the Ukrainian specimens, further that the orange spot on the upperside of the hind wing cannot be said to be small but is rather of a medium size ; the corresponding brown-ringed double silver spot on the underside is decidedly small, its brown margin indistinct. These features claim that ssp. sibirica stands nearer to Eastern European populations than to Central European ones. Some remarks should finally be made of ssp. caspicus described by St ic h e 1 (19). The author himself considers it probable that the Ukrainian females without the orange suffusion and described by K r u 1 i k o v s k y (11) are in a closer relationship with this subspecies. Stichel holds the yellow basic color without the orange suffusion to be the manifestation of the relationship and sees the main difference in the fact that this feature is born by the males in Northern Iran, and by the females in Ukraina. Ï deem it also probable that there is a near relationship between ssp. caspicus and ssp. ksienzhopolskii. Stichel, namely, had some Northern Iranian males with some faint orange suffusion. Even though I did not find any male in our Crimean material wholly lacking the orange tint, there are more than one among them on which the suffusion is faint and with a transitus into yellow toward the costa and the termen, just like on some of the specimens of S t i c h e l's caspicus. Nor is it impossible that the two subspecies are essentially identical. If this proves to be true, the older name should be used, in accordance with the Rules of Nomenclature, and this is caspicus 1911 (ksienzhopolskii 1936). The grouping of the Palearctic subspecies of C. chrysotheme. On the basis of the data enumerated above, it is indubitable that the grouping of the subspecies of C. chrysotheme made by Verity in 1911, needs certain corrections. The main groups will still remain chrysotheme and sibirica, but the subdivisions of the subspecies relegated to them will suffer some alterations. Of the first group, the nonexistent graeca, based on erroneous data, then shugorowi (whose valid name is ksienzhopolskii) which stands nearer to sibirica must be taken out. At the present, only chrysotheme chysotheme and the newly described chrysotheme praealpina will belong to this group. As opposed to this, the sibirica group will considerably expand. Not only will chrysotheme sibirica belong here but also chrysotheme caspicus and chrysotheme ksienzhopolskii (V e r it y's shugorowi) too, — if, indeed, these two latter ones are not identical. It is very possible that the bounds of both groups will further expand in the future. On the basis of our Bosnian specimens it seems to be a safe assumption that a distinct subspecies, belonging to the western group, represents the species in the Balkan. Of the chrysotheme forms depicted on Plate XLVII in V e r i t y's work, figs. 22. and 23., — females from the Mts. Altai — represent a possibly other subspecies belonging to the sibirica group. Finally, the male from Western Mongolia, shown by fig. 21., wholly differs by the arched termen of its fore wings from the sibirica group, and if it is not an individual aberration or a possibly erroneous data, it is likely that the species is represented in Eastern Asia by a subspecies hitherto underscribed. To clear up all these pending problems, however, more data and materials are needed and I should be deeply obliged to anyone to make such accessible to me. 28 Term. Tud. Múzeum Évkönyve