LEPIDOPTEKA OF THE TYROL, TRAFOI TO SULDEN. 229 



"Ortler district, at a meeting of the Entomological Society of London 

 only last autumn (1908). A number of Issoria lathonia, a very small 

 race, were on the wing, sunning on the paths, and very alert ; these 

 had evidently only recently emerged, whilst Hesperia alveus was 

 frequent, Ac^riades coridon and Aricia astrarc/ie more abundant. Here, 

 too, Erebia nielampus was also on the the wing, and this was found 

 abundantly also in the Sulden-Thal. Dasydia ohfuscata, Eubolia 

 bipunctaria, and E. vunsuraria, were common on the banks, and 

 Cidaria populata often noticed throughout the day's journey. There 

 was no special abundance of "whites" observed, although Pieris 

 brassicae, P. rapae, and P. napi were frequent, the latter taken in 

 hopes of the Tyrolean form, but the 2 s, though fairly large, were 

 quite typical, and useless to send home to Mr. Main, who wants to 

 breed the Tyrolean race. A single specimen of the mountain form of 

 yielitaea athalia, and a fine newly-emerged Papilio inacliaon with the 

 left forewing slightly incised below the apex, fell an easy prey. In 

 the lower part of the Sulden-Thal, one expected that insects would 

 prove abundant. The four large fritillaries — Dryas paphia, An/ynnis 

 adippe, A. niobe, and A. aglaia — were all common, whilst one was 

 always pleased to see fine freshly-emerged Vanessa io and Pyrameis 

 atalaiita. These, with Agriades coridon, Aricia astrarche, and one or 

 two other common species, made up the chief of the lepidoptera 

 observed in this part of the valley, whilst AntJirocera transalpina was 

 the only burnet noted. It may be advisable to record also the finding 

 of a batch of eggs of Dasydia obfuscata on a leaf of Hippophoe 

 rhamnoides ; the eggs were laid quite upright, and close together, and, 

 well as we knew the eggs of this species, laid in a box, it was not easy 

 to place them, found thus wild. But the Sulden-Thal is not an 

 entomological paradise. It is far too highly cultivated to be very 

 productive of lepidoptera, and a long walk only resulted in a few 

 worn Plebeins aryyroynomon, Lithosia lurideola, Merrifieldia tridactyla 

 (tetradactyla), and other species on which the British collector would 

 look with contempt. But the scenery is delightful, and made up for 

 much that was wanting in the collecting, and, after all, many a person 

 travels from England to the Tyrol for the pleasure of the scenery with- 

 out troubling about the butterflies. This thought is always a comfort 

 when one feels slack in the mountains, even if the idea is a little 

 Pecksniffian. But, just before reaching Sulden, a little patch of 

 lucerne surrounded by a rank growth, called a halt, for here were 

 observed examples of Heodes virgaureae that deserved attention ; the 

 first example taken turned out to be Chrysophanus hippothoe worn 

 almost to shreds, but some of the H. virgaureae were, at any rate, 

 better than this, and finally three ^ s and seven 5 s found themselves 

 in the collecting box. The <? s are of a bright coppery-yellow tint, 

 one with strongly-developed discoidal lunules to the forewings ; the 

 ? s approach the zermattensis form, two with the ground colour pale 

 yellowish, ihe others suffused completely, with only a faint submedian 

 transverse line on the forewing and submarginal on the hindwing, the 

 black spots almost lost in the ground colour, and generally tending to a 

 distinct ciineata form, whilst in one a row of white submedian spots is very 

 ■characteristic ( = var. snldensis) . A few very worn Plebeius argyrognomon 

 also occurred here, and a fine fresh dark 5 of Loweia dorilis (the only 

 specimen seen in the valley), whilst a few worn Cyaniris semiargus 



