36 THE ENTOMOI.OGI.ST's RKCORD. 



separate from each other, from the southern part of Central Europe, 

 and a third, with elongated wings and thin scaling, found, as a rule, 

 further north. 



The Eastern Pyrenees, 192!. 



By D. H. PEARSON, F.E.S. 



Last year my brother and I were in the central and western Pyre- 

 nees, and this year decided to go further east. Ijeaving London at 8.20 

 a.m. on June 24th, we arrived at Vernet-les-Bains on the afternoon of 

 the 25th. All the large hotels were shut up, but we stayed very com- 

 fortably at the pension of Madame Massina. After a cup of tea we 

 started out for a short walk, and were delighted to take two Melanarciia 

 lachesis. The next morning we took a nice little series of this species, 

 which became commoner as the days went on, but when we left Vernet, 

 on July 5th, I realised that nearly all the captures were males, and we 

 afterwards took a number of J s at Molitg-les-Bains. The speciea 

 show's considerable variation. The markings are practically the same 

 as in i/alathea, except that the black at the base of the upper wing and 

 the central band in lower wnng are replaced by the ground-colour. In 

 most specimens there is a faint discoidal lunule, and in some this is 

 composed of purple scales instead of the ground-colour. On the under- 

 side the hindwing has usually three spots at the anal angle, sometimes 

 two, and occasionally four, and two spots near the costa, as in ijalatkea. 

 In .two specimens these two costal spots appear on the uppersideof the 

 wino-, and there are faint traces of them in others. Some have three 

 well defined spots on the upperside in a complete ring of ground colour, 

 some have two, some one.' A few show no trace of spots, and some are 

 represented by a tiny patch of purple scales. There is also considerpible 

 variation in the black submarginal band, which in one or two specimens 

 is carried right round the lower wing with only a trace of the usual 

 ground colour gap. They are all noticeably darker than specimens I 

 have seen from Spain. The centres of the eye-spots are purple, in some 

 consisting of a large patch, and in others confined to a few purple 

 scales. These purple spots do not seem to be mentioned in descriptio-n& 

 of the species, though Kane refers to them in syllius, arge, and ines. 

 On looking through my series of (lalathea I find several which have 

 these purple eye-spots, viz., from Polegate, Monkswood, Lulworth, 

 Luchon, Brian(,"on,etc., so that they appear to be common to the family. 

 A few specimens of lachesis were taken with a yellow ground colour 

 (var. canigideiisis), but though we netted and examined a considerable 

 number we failed to turn up the var. catalenca, and understand from a 

 local entomologist that this is a very rare form. I really ought to have 

 taken a longer series, but that brother of mine looked upon me as a 

 Herod among the Innocents, and I weakly allowed my ardour to be 

 damped. From the train we saw what appeared to be lachfsis most of 

 the way up to Mont Louis, but we did not meet with it at Mont Louis 

 itself. M. jinlatliea was not seen at all during our trip, though it was 

 common last year at Gavarnie. 



On June 26th we took our first LaeaxopU rohnris, and managed 

 during the next week to get a nice series of this insect. Our best 

 locality was a steep bank under a watercourse on the left bank of the 

 stream outside the grounds of the Grand Hotel, and we also took them. 



