Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 59. (Budapest 1967)

Kovács, L.: Data to the knowledge of Hungarian Macrolepidoptera II. Comparative population studies on three arctiid species by the aid of light traps

The basic colour of the fore wings is highly varying. The most frequent is a dark, slightly dull blackish brown, occasionally with traces of a rufous hue. If the rufous suffusion becomes deeper, it rather suppresses the brown basic colour. In rarer cases, a drab grey covers the brown. A distinct but small group comprises cases in which the rufous tint entirely overcasts the brown. This comes especially to the fore in freshly hatched specimens; those which had already flown are more pallid. It is a similarly seldom occurrence that the basic colour is drab or this tinge at least dominates in it. It is usually rufous of brown, but rarely of a yellowish tint. It might also mix with brownish grey in the western confines of the country. In the foreign material of the Museum I found no match of the entirely dark fore wing, but I assume from OSTHELDER'S description that this hue occurs in ssp. monacensis (16). Our rufous brown and drab specimens with a rufous tint have counterparts in South France (Digne, Alpes Maritimes), while the dull brownish home specimens most resemble the Polish and Durmitor exemplars. The basic colour of the hind wing is generally a vivid carmine, occasionally tending into pink or vermilion. The basic colour is uniformly pink in the western zone, while the cinnabar hue prevails best in the SE Transdanubia. There are also individual deviations. The hind wing of the rufous brown and drab specimens has generally fewer scales and is of a pinkish tint. In a unique case, a fresh specimen, caught in the field, shows uniformly pale yellow hind wings (Kenderes, 18 May, 1964). I have not observed the vivid carmine basic colour in foreign exemplars; pure pink or pinkish basic colour is characteristic of South France specimens. The black spots of the fore wing are usually of a deep black, but they might frequently become paler: the basic colour relegates the black scales into the background. This is usually observable in the external row of spots, but it might occur anywhere. In extreme eases, all spots are of a pale, brownish black hue. The spots are arranged into 3 rows in the median field of the wing. The inner row consists of 2 spots, of which the upper one is frequently divided ; the median and the outer row comprises 3 spots each. There is still a small black spot at the base, another one (occasionally) in the area of the termen, and a double black spot below the apex, while, quite exceptionally, an indistinct marginal spot in the continuation of the cell. The black spots are not situated always and directly in the basic colour, they occasionally have a pale yellow, locally interrupted frame of varying width. The spots of the hind wing are generally of a medium width or small ; the basic colour frequently tends to pale around them. The two upper spots are situated immediately behind the apex ; they are frequently contiguous or completely confluent. The other two spots are generally well delimited from them and also from one another. In the second brood, the spots of the wings are bigger (occasionally at a striking rate) than those of the first one. Taxonomical problems. The populations within our borders of Gh. maculosa are of two kind with respect to their external morphological characters. In a part of them, the colour and pattern features are uniform within the population, and thus, owing to their peculiar characteristics, they are well distinguishable from one another. However, in the majority of populations the colour and pattern elements are more or less varying and partly common with those of other populations, hence they cannot be sharply delimited either from one another or from the former ones. In the first •case, there is no striking difference, except for size, between the two generations,