THE LEPIDOPTERA OF THE BOGS ABOVE THE ZURICHER-SEE. 245 



The Lepidoptera of the Bogs above the Ziiricher-See. 



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

 In 1895, Dr. Buckell wrote an excellent paper {F!nt. Bee, vii., 

 pp. 100 ct st'q.) on " Cnennnyiiipha tipJxm and its varieties," which was 

 followed during the next year by another first-class paper by Mr. Elwes 

 [Ent. Rec, viii., pp. 228 etseq.), on the same subject. These dealt, as 

 the titles suggest, with the variation of the species. About the same 

 time Mr. J. E. Robson published (Ent. Bee, vii., p. 265) a paper on 

 " Cocnoui/viplia ttphnn (davus) at home," giving his observations on the 

 habits and habitat of the insect on the Northumberland moors. 



One by one our British species have come under my ken, some- 

 where or other in their native haunts, until at last I could say that I 

 had seen all alive under natural conditions except three — ChrijKopJuimis 

 dispar, Strymon pruni, and Cuenoni/mpJia tiphon. I have bred the two 

 former, S. pnmi on several occasions, so was not altogether ignorant 

 of them in life, but C. tiphon I had never seen alive. This year, 

 thanks to Mr. Muschamp, the opportunity occurred to hunt this on 

 the boggy uplands above the Ziiricher-See, and thus to add, as it were, 

 a personal knowledge of the only British species I had really never 

 seen alive. 



Dr. Buckell, in his excellent paper, separated the British forms of 

 the species roughly into three groups, which he named " the southern 

 form," "the middle form" and "the northern form," recognising 

 that intermecTiate forms and areas of admixture were not at all infre- 

 quent; the details of their distribution are given [Ent. Rec, vii., 

 pp. 101-2). 



It may be here noted that Staudinger [Cat., 3rd ed., p. 66) has made 

 a sad mess of laidimi, Bkh., which he refers to tiphon, von Rott., 

 renaming the laidion form (Buckell's northern form) scotica, Stand. 

 South follows Staudinger {Brit. Butt., p. 133) blindly into this morass, 

 it being quite evident that neither Staudinger nor South have ever read 

 the original descriptions of tiphon, yoii Rott., and laidion, Bkh., for the 

 purpose of comparison, yet the descriptions are readily obtainable. 

 Lepidopterists are advised to follow Buckell in all details relating to 

 this species. His work is excellent, and I have, whilst writing this, 

 all his MS. notes and translations before me. It is a pity that more 

 care has not been taken to digest his work before adding another tangle 

 to the already overladen synonymy. It may be taken for granted that 

 his conclusions {Ent. Bee, vii., p. 103) are absolutely correct. 



Roughly it may be said that the specimens from the Ziiricher-See 

 belong to " the middle form," i.e., in their general characteristics they 

 are most like that which occurs predominantly on the Northumberland 

 moorland bogs, various localities in Ireland, etc., i.e., they are typical 

 tiphon, Rott. 



It is generally stated that this species occurs on " marshy " ground 

 in Switzerland, e.g., Wheeler says that "it is confined to marshy 

 places," and the " Weesen marsh," the " Weissenburg marshes," "a 

 sloping marshy field on the left of the road to St. George's," etc., are 

 specially noted. Now all wet ground may rightly be said in a sense to be 

 " marshy," but there is great difference between say "the marshes of 

 the Thames and the Medway," open meadows, intersected by great 

 ditches or dykes, and the wet boggy ground occurring inland, often at 

 November 15th, 1908. 



