NOTES ON /Y(;AENA MINOS. 271 



pleasure of sofing it alive. Far different is the case witli the 

 lepidopterist Avdio visits the continent, for there, in any suitable part of 

 Central or Southern Europe, tliis species is almost sure to be met with 

 during July and August. Staudinger gives as the area of its 

 distribution, " Central and Southern Europe (except Iberia and 

 doubtfully Southern Ital}'); England; Scandinavia (Central and South); 

 Livonia; Asia Minor; Armenia and Siberia" — a rather largo tract it 

 will be observed, of the Pala^arctic area. Probably J*higland in the 

 exact sense of the word, is the part of tlie British Isles in Avhich the 

 species has been the least fi-equently observed, Cornwall being the 

 only English county from wliich its capture has been recorded. 

 Records exist both for Scotland and Wales, but Ireland is, so far as the 

 British Isles are concerned, its chosen and favourite home. 



Great was my delight when, for the first time, I saw this beautiful 

 Burnet moth, buzzing over a floweiy bank on the roadside near Bourg 

 St. ]Maurice. Some few hundred yards nearer the foot of the zigzag 

 l^ath that leads up to the jiass of the Little St. Bernai'd, Ave found a 

 steep slope where the insect was abundant, careering about Avith its 

 relative, Z. carnioUca. Later in the day Ave found it on the ascent to 

 the pass of the Little St. Bernard ; Avhilst at Courmayeur, a few days 

 afterwards, it hustled Z. achilleae, Z. carnioUca, Z. ochseiiheimeri, Z. 

 transalpina, and other Burnet moths Avith Avhich it liA'ed, on the 

 floAvery slopes, although there its beauty Avas fast fading and the 

 varieties Avere becoming A'ery distinctly " diaphanous." Later on we 

 met Avith a fcAv specimens in the Cogne district, but there, Burnets of 

 all kinds (Avith the solitary exception of Zijgnena e.vulans) Avere 

 decidedly scarce. Probably it Avas getting too late in the season ; still 

 more probably the altitude (5,000 to 8,000 feet) Avas getting too great 

 for the species, although it must be admitted that a large colony Avas 

 met with at an altitude of some 6,000 feet on the steep and dangerous 

 slopes of Mont de la Saxe. HoAvever, Z. minos was an ahvays 

 welcome sight, and my comj^aratively small series does not present at 

 all a fair sam2:)le of the specimens Ave came across. 



The first thing that strikes one about this species, especially when 

 one has been accustomed to five- or six-spotted Burnet moths, is its 

 streaks. A long streak runs for some distance along the costal edge of 

 the Aving, starting from the base and extending for half the length of 

 the Aving l^etween the costa and the sub-costal nerA'ure. Then, Avhat 

 normally form the tAvo outer spots in a six-spotted species like 

 Z. jilipendidae, are united into a someAvhat irregular blotch, Avhich in 

 its turn is united by a streak with the upper of the central 

 pair of spots. Lastly the loAver of the basal pair of spots joins with the 

 loAver one of the middle j^air, and forms another blotch running along 

 the centre of the Aving. There are thus three red blotches on the 

 fore- wings in Avhicli the origin of the spots of the spotted species may 

 be easily traced, or, if one prefers to take the opposite vicAv, in Avhich 

 one may trace very distinctly the spots from Avhich the blotches haA'e 

 been formed. These three red blotches limit the area occupied by 

 the green or deep puri)le-blue ground-colour, and restrict this almost 

 entirely to the outer edge of the Aving. In most specimens, howcA'er, 

 the nervures retain the green or blue ground-colour, and thus mark off 

 very distinctly and decidedly the boundaries of the blotches. It 

 sometimes haj^pens on the other hand that the nervures fail to keep 



