180 THE entomologist's record. 



Lepidoptera of the Tirol — Neu Spondinig. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



Next morning broke finer, and the inexorable wheel of necessity 

 moved us on, and about noon of August 11th we found ourselves 

 settled in the comfortable inn at Neu Spondinig, at the foot of the 

 Stelvio on the Austrian side. Exactly twelve months earlier I had 

 rushed through the village on the top of a diligence, and I had mentally 

 determined that, hot and blazing as it looked, I ought to return there 

 some day. Behind the village, the road leads over the Adige on to Trafoi 

 and the top of the Stelvio over the mighty Ortlers; directly in front, and 

 coming down to the roadside the mountains looked bare, parched, 

 hopeless, with a wilderness of knee-high, almost neck-high, thistles all 

 along the foot. The foothills seem to consist of a sort of brecciated mud. 

 Neu Spondinig itself is at an elevation of rather less than 3000 ft., 

 and consists at present of the inn, a brand new railway station, and 

 about three cottages, but as it is the necessary place of call and rest for 

 everybody and everything going over the Stelvio, it is a very busy 

 place. The species that I knew I should get at Neu Spondinig was 

 Hipparchia briseh and I got it, as the series in all my friend's cabinets 

 testify, and I still have others for other friends whose series are not 

 satisfactory. In size the specimens vary from tiny pigmies (ab. minor) 

 to examples as large as the huge races from Spain, southern Italy, and 

 Asia Minor ; the spots, usually two (bipioicta) in number, but here almost 

 as frequently three {tripiincta),oi which the middle one varies most in size. 

 The butterfly abounds on thethistlesallalongthefootof the hills, resting 

 in dozens on the thistle-flowers, or flying over the slopes and settling in 

 the roadway; like all these Satyrid species the sexes have regular play- 

 habits, quite apart from pairing, but although we often watched them 

 took no notes on the spot. Much less abundant was Hipparchia semele, 

 the $ with rich orange-fulvous markings (clara) particularly brilliant in 

 tint, and occasionally with three ocelli (trijniHcta) as in H. briseis; 

 Melanargia ijalathea was also extremely abundant but already past 

 its best; the ^ s appeared to be particularly yellow as also were they 

 on the Mendelstrasse, and in the Sarnthal. The form of Epinephele 

 lycaon is small, the J s dark and poorly spotted, the $ s orange-fulvous, 

 the basal area of forewings suft'used with the ground colour rather than 

 fulvous, only one $ single-spotted [unipnnrta), i.e., with only one apical 

 eyespot. A piece of waste ground about a mile from the village 

 swarmed with Plebeitis ar(ii/ru(i)iomon. I was pleased to take three 

 freshly-emerged Melitaea athalia. Melitaea didi/ma was apparently 

 rare, the ? s captured pale, the ^ s beautifully bright ; M. phoebe was 

 just emerging, large, dark, of the alpina form; a brood of Pararge 

 megaera was on the wing, almost all with a small ocellus near the apex 

 of the forewing [apiciocellata); plenty of Coenoniity/iha painphilits were met 

 with, as also Hesperia alveus, but a few worn H. carthanii, one was quite 

 fine, proved that this species was going over, and only one Coenonympha 

 arcania was considered worth a pin. Powellia sao occurred very 

 sparingly, a brood of Erynnis alceae was just on the wing, quite 

 rich in colour, whilst a single llrbicola comma was the only one noticed 

 in the district. 



Hipparchia cordula was over, heaps of very worn fragments were 

 everywhere, whilst only one Erebiid species was seen, Erebia goatite, 



I 



