842 Mr. M. A. C. Hinton on a

median line, which is angled at the costa; postmediau area verst broadly ashen-grey, the upper part of it being less solid than the part on the fold ; a series of preterminal blackish points, from each of which a minute fine white dash emanates towards the termen. Secondaries similar to the primaries, but the postmedian ashy area is far from solid~ being much interrupted.

Expanse 48-56 ram. Hab. Ekeikei (1500 feet) ; March and April (Pratt). Type in my collection. A't first sight it might appear that this was only an aberra-

tion of the previous species, but I have both forms in both sexes with a series of each, and there are no intermediates, so I have described them as species.

Erlee~a setoslpedes, sp. n.

~ . Head, thorax, abdomen, and both wings pale ashy grey. Primaries with brightish chestnut-coloured marks; a small subhasal spot divided by vein i a ; a large reniform stigma, beyond which most of ~he postmedian area is suffused with chestnut-colour, indefinite and indistinct lines being apparent in it, whilst its outer edge has a distinct, irregular, pale wavy line therein; 'beyond this the ground-colour is resumed up to the termen, which has preterminal, dark, inter- neural points. Secondaries with a dirty ochreous median stripe, finely edged with greyish and again externally with whitish; a small pale rusty spot well above the tornus, beyond which is a pale, scalloped, fine indistinct line ; anal portion of the terminal area rather whitish; termen very finely scalloped with dark grey, with the usual interneural dark points. In both wings the pale ashy-grey areas are finely and sparingly irrorated with greyish.

Expanse 60 mm. Hab. Dinawa (4000 feet), May-July ; British New Guinea

(Pratt). Type in my collection. This species will come next to eriophora.

XL. - -On a new Species of Mvopus from Central Asia. By MARTIN h. C. ttINTON.

I AM indebted to Mr. Oldfield Thomas for permission to publish the following account of an interesting new species of M2/opus from Central Asia.

new Sloee[es of Myopus from Central Asia. 343

Myolous aaian~eus, sp. n.

Zemmva oberon, Thomas~ Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (8~ ix, April 1912, p. 401 (not of Bracts).

Type.--An adult male (skull with temporal ridges fused into a salient interorbital crest). B.M. 1"2. 4. 1. 126. From the Syansk Mountains, 100 miles west of Lake Baikal. Trapped on 12th June, 1910, by Mr. Douglas Carruthers, at a height of 2200 feet, in wet moss.

External eharaeters.--[~l all essential respects the external form is that of the genus. Size about as in M. morulus~ but with relatively larger head. The general colour is con- siderably lighter and brighter than in ~1 r. scfiistleolor. The rusty mantle is much more extensive than in the Skandi- navian species, and agrees exactly with Hollister's description of that of M. morulus. As in the two cited species, the ground-colour of the remainder of the body is dark grey or slate, but it is lightened in the present species by silver hairs, which are abundant everywhere, and particularly so or, the ventral surface ; a few silver hairs also appear through the rusty mantle at. one polnt, on the rump. ~l'he hands are like the sides in colour ; the tail is black and the feet are dark brown (near " sepia") above ; the under surfaces of feet and tail are lighter, near "burly brown."

Collector's measurements of t ype .~Head and body 88 mm. ; tail (without terminal hairs) 1 4 e ; hind foot ~wit.hout claws) 16 ; ear 13"5.

Skull and teec, h.--Compared with M. scfii~e~volor~ the upper incisors are slightly stronger and a little more recurred ; in section they make a nearer app.roaeh to those of Lemmus~ in that the outer part of the anterior face of each is wider, while the narrower inner portion is rather sharply bent b~ckwards, so that the wearing surface of each tooth tends to assume the peculiar tubular form which is so characteristic of the upper incisors of Lernmu$. The cheek-teeth are noticeably larger and broader than those of M. sch~stlvolor, but they agree exactly in form. The skull differs from the Skandi- navian species most strikingly in its greatly enlarged and globosely inflated auditory bulla~. The rostrum is shallower and longer, with less steeply inclined nasals, and the length of the diastema is a little greater. In correlation with the enlargement of the cheek-teeth and bullre, the pterygoid foss~ are shortened. The posterior edge of the palate is gently convex centrally, instead of being furnished with a small

* Given as "21 " on label ; bat this is obviously wrong. 23*

344 On a new STecles of Myopus frcm Central Asia.

median splnous process. The squamosals approach within 1"1 ram. of each other in the fore part el the brain-eas% and the bi-s~et)hanic width is reduced to 3"9 mm. ; in an equally old skull of M. schistlcolor these ~wo dimensions are 2"3 and 4"7 ram. respectively ; these differences indicate an increased development of the anterior portions of the temporal muscles which is doubtless Correlated with the enlargement of the molars.

Cranial dimenslons.--CondyIo4asal length 25"8 ram. ca. ; zygomatie breadth 16"5 ; interorbital constriction 3'1 ; mastoid breadth 12"6 ; length and anterior width of nasals 7"5 and 3; diastema 7'5; cheek-teeth (alveolar) 7'8 ; palatal depth 9"4 ; cranial depth 8"3 ; mandible 16"7 ; mandibular cheek-teeth (alveolar) 7"3.

_Remarks.--~Iiddendorff (' Siblrisehe Reise,' ii. 2, p. 108) long ago suspected that " Myodes schisticolor" ranged right across Northern Europe and Asia. He described a specimen from Ajan on the west coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, " which just as completely agrees with Lilljeborg's description and figures as it' it had sat as the model." This statement was generally ignored until 1912~ when Hollister * described his M. nwrulus, based upon a specimen which he collected in a nut-pine forest, at an altitude of 6875 feet, near Tapueha, a place in the Altai 1Mountains 125 miles S.E. of Biisk. This differs from M. schisticolor in its darker more blackish colora- tion ; duller and much more extensive rusty mantle ; laterally compressed, rounder looped, and rather smaller cheek-teeth ; and smaller and much flatter auditory bullte. In every respect, th erefor% save in the clmracter of the mantle, M. morulus is very different from the fo,'m before me. The latter comes from a point some 600 miles to the east~ of the type locality of M. morulus, and may be regarded as the" most highly specialized member, of the genus yet discovered; this is proved by the cramal and dental characters, which in several important respects show an advance upon those of M. schisti- color in the direction of Lemmus, and by the lightening of the colour~ which causes the species to present such a strong superficial resemblance to L. obensls that when :Mr. Thomas cursorily examined the type in the first place he failed to discover its true affinities.

* Smith~onian Misc. Coll. Ix., Nov. 29, 1912~ no. 14, p. 1 ; and Prec. ]_LS. Nat. Mus. xlv. p. 514 (21st June, 1913).