EREBIA LEFEBVREI, BDV., ON CANIGOU. 79 



was shadowed by a cloud. Their flight is certainly quick, and if 

 struck at, very straight, but ordinarily they dart here and there zig- 

 zagging or direct as the case may be, and many a chase up the grassy 

 slopes did 1 have after them, sometimes the reward was a miss or a 

 closer acquaintance with " mother earth," but by no means generally 

 so. I took each of the three forms described by M. Oberthiir. 



E. lefehvrci var. et ab. astiir. — I have well over a dozen specimens 

 that are quite indistinguishable from any Picos specimens of this form, 

 the special character being the uniform blackness of the underside, com- 

 bined with a rather rough texture, whilst the secondaries are without 

 spots. But this is not quite absolute as already intimated. The form 

 occurs without doubt as an aberration on Canigou, both on the North 

 and South sides of the mountain, and I have a single specimen from 

 the Hautes Pyrenees that is a " transit " between the form and 

 pyrenaea. 



M. Oberthiir has very kindly lent me a pair of his astur, these are 

 spotless and I did not take a specimen quite spotless, but in his de- 

 scriptions he refers to ocellated specimens that are like mine from the 

 Picos and Canigou. 



Erebia lefehrrei var. jn/renaea. — This is the Canigou race, but as M. 

 Obei'thiir has shewn long ago it is very variable within narrow limits 

 {he has also very kindly lent me a pair of this form for comparison). 

 The absolutely spotless form of the male figured in the Lep. Co»ip., 

 PL xlvi., fig. 369, is apparently very rare indeed. Mr. Johnson took a 

 ■single specimen, I did not, though I had one or two with only a very 

 minute dot. The commonest form are those figured {lor. cit.) figs. 370 

 and 371, which are quite black above with two to four ocellations in 

 the primaries only. The four-spotted form is evidently a great rarity 

 for we did not take a single example, though we took plenty with 

 three spots. On the underside the commonest is without doubt 

 entirely unicolorous black, but examples frequently occurred with 

 traces of a red fascia, and others with quite a bright red fascia in the 

 primaries of the males. 



There are, however, two other varieties that should be referred to. 

 One, by no means rare, is similar to pyrenaea, but has two or three 

 small ocellations in the secondaries. M. Oberthiir referred to this 

 point in his original description in the KtiideH, bat does not happen to 

 have selected one for figuring in the Lep. Coinparee. Both those he 

 has kindly sent me for comparison, however, have three ocellations in 

 the secondaries. The other variety is one of which I took about a dozen 

 specimens, whilst Mr. Johnson took some also. In these there is a red 

 fascia on the upper side of the primaries in which the ocellations are 

 placed. In some specimens it is a trace, in others it is a distinct small 

 fascia, extending down to the third ocellus. In my companion's series 

 there is one in which the fascia is as large as in the females, but 

 generally it is decidedly smaller. 



Turning now to the females, the type form as originally described 

 is that figured (Inc. cit.) No. 372. This is dark brown in both wings, 

 with three ocelli in the primaries, and none in the secondaries, whilst 

 the red fascia is small ; this character is variable. Equally common 

 with this is that figured at No. 373 with a good-sized bright fascia in 

 the primaries, and three fairly prominent ocelli in the secondaries. I 

 have also some examples in which there are four prominent and large 



