1^ tHE entomologist's RECORCi 



The Butterflies of Carinthia. 



By FKEDEEICK C. LEMANN, F.E.S. 



There is no doubt about it, the pursuit of European butterflies 

 engenders in one a restless roving spirit, which leads on from modest 

 trips to well-knoAvn Swiss and French centres, to more outlandish 

 regions, where rare and local insects find their home. There is a 

 weird fascination in all this, akin, I suppose, to the force which drove 

 Nansen to the North Pole, and Stanley to Darkest Africa, but once 

 this power gets you in its grasp, resistance is useless, and follow you 

 must. 



I really believe that Mr. W. F. de Vismes Kane, in his excellent 

 Handbook to the European Butterflies, is mainly responsible for that 

 rapidly growing tendency of British entomologists to " take their walks 

 abroad," and I, for one, owe him a deep debt of gratitude for having 

 inspired me with the desire to make the acquaintance of the Conti- 

 nental insects. 



In discussing Carinthia as a hunting ground in the present year, I 

 was mainly influenced by an account given to me by Mrs. Nicholl, of 

 her captures in that district in 1895, and it Avas finally arranged with 

 my travelling companions. Dr. T. A. Chapman, Messrs. W. E. 

 Nicholson and K. Wylie Lloyd, that we should start from London on 

 July 3rd. 



Our route lay through Calais and Basle, to Innsbruck, where we 

 spent a night, then on to Villach, where we had a day's collecting, but 

 without great results, the surrounding country being too highly culti- 

 vated for entomological purposes. From Villach we took train to Mosel, 

 and walked thence to Lolling, a village at an elevation of 2,982 ft. Here 

 we rested for a couple of nights, and did a little collecting ; the weather, 

 however, was not very favourable, and we took nothing more noticeable 

 than Brenthb {Aiyijnnis') tJiore and B. ino. From Lolling we walked up 

 to Stelzing, which lies at the foot of the Grosse Sau Alps, a mountain 

 reaching 6,828 ft. Stelzing itself, or rather the small Alpine inn which 

 represents the village, stands 4,626 ft., consequently we could reach our 

 collecting ground on the upper slopes of the mountain in less than a 

 couple of hours. A steep rough path led up through pine forests to the 

 foot of a peak called the Geierkogl, and it was there, on a grassy slope 

 above the forest, that we first found a genuine Carinthian butterfly, in 

 Krehia {Melampian) arete. This insect, together with a very fine and 

 distinct form of Erehia eripJnjle, was fairly plentiful whenever the sun 

 was shining, but unfortunately the weather Avas for the most part dull 

 and cold, and our bag was correspondingly diminished. In addition to 

 the above-named species, we took interesting forms of Erehia meelma, 

 including the var. Jnppoinedum. 



On July 14th we left Stelzing, and walked over the mountains to 

 Wolfsberg, the capital of the Lavant Thai, a sunny, fertile valley, known 

 as the Eden of Carinthia. Here we had the pleasure of meeting Herr 

 Gabriel Hofner, the well-known Carinthian entomologist, who was 

 particularly kind in putting us up to localities and other entomological 

 wrinkles. 



At Wolfsberg we fell in with many interesting forms, such as Erehia 

 (Melanipias) ji/iarte, which flies in profusion on the Kor Alpe, 7,024 ft. 

 It was interesting to note that E. phartc was common over the whole 



