NOTKS ON THE LEPIDOPTERA OF BKINDISI. 235 



and a series required for the cabinet should be netted in the third week 

 in May. F.. tithmus I have not seen in Southern Italy. Vararge 

 merjaera is to be found the year round in varying numbers — I have 

 never failed to meet with it on one of my thirty odd visits ranging from 

 the earliest days in January to the latest in December, The males are 

 quite typical but the females are paler in ground colour and much less 

 well marked than the females of the spring brood on the Riviera. The 

 only form of Coenonynipha pamphiluH which I have met with is the ab. 

 ■lijllus. Satyriix fidia is in great abundance on the rough ground near 

 'the harbour about the middle of August, and the same ground produces 

 one or two other very interesting Satyrids, notably Mela)wr(iia arije 

 which is I understand usually considered one of the most difficult of 

 European butterflies to obtain. There is no difficulty about it at 

 Brindisi if you get there at the right time and hit the right plr. e, 

 ivhich is the rough ground by the side of the outer harbour between 

 the P. and 0. coal wharf and the signal station (Port Amara). It is espec- 

 ially abundant towards the fort. Its habits are exceedingly like those of 

 our familiar .V. <ialatea. On a fine day in early May it is to be found in 

 plenty at the blossoms of scabious and thistles and flitting up and down 

 weedy banks ; but if it is blowing scirocco, M. arye does not venture forth, 

 and must then be searched for at rest. It is fond of roosting on a big 

 rush, which grows in plenty in wet hollows and has points like 

 bayonets ; but it also rests on the stems of barley and rye in the 

 adjoining fields, and on various low plants. About 4.80 p.m. it 

 begins to seek its roost, and then the butterflies may be seen on the 

 rush stems in scores, with wings half open to catch the late sunshine 

 before finally settling down to sleep. Then, and a little later, is the 

 time to get one's specimens. On May 9th last I examined over 400 

 in one evening, and found among them eight fine examples of the ab. 

 caeca, Stdgr. On the following morning, about 11 a.m., I saw several 

 pairs in copula, and I noticed that, when the paired couples were dis- 

 turbed, the female carried the male. The lizards were taking toll of 

 these paired insects, and several sets of detached wings showed where 

 a tragedy had been enacted. The female of this species will often 

 deposit its white spherical eggs on the cork of the collecting-box, just 

 as M. f/alatea does. M. arr/e is widely distributed in the neighbour- 

 hood, and I have met with it miles away from the harbour, but the 

 rough ground near Fort Amara seems to be its headquarters. M. 

 iapyijia also occurs on the same ground in some numbers, but I have 

 not met with it in such plenty as M. artje. By the way, Spuler gives 

 June and July for this insect, but, at Brindisi, the latter month would 

 be much too late. M. iapyyia appears about May 20th, and the 

 majority of those taken three weeks later are scarcely worth pinning. 

 M. f/alatea var. procida is abundant in the weedy lanes about the 

 same time as M. iapyyia, but it appears on the wing a little earlier. 

 Amongst the Urbicolids the most interesting is Gef/enes nnstradannis, 

 of which I have only managed to secure about eight or nine examples 

 all told. The first one I took was a fine female which I noticed at 

 rest on a thistle. I approached, and was surpri^^ed that the insect 

 was so bold as to remain unmoved ; but approaching still closer, I 

 observed it was held fast in the callipers of a crab-spider, whose body 

 was sunk deep in the capitulum of the thistle, while the callipers, 



