244 LLOYD S NATURAL HISTORY. 



Thais rumi7ia^ var. houfioratii, Lang, Butterflies Eur. p. 24, 

 pi. 3, fig. 5 (1881). 



This species, which is common in Southern France in May, 

 is the smallest of the genus, expanding an inch and a half or 

 an inch and three-quarters. It is of a yellowish-white or pale 

 ochreous-yellow ; the fore-wings with a series of five broad black 

 bands running from the costa, the first, third, and fifth marked 

 A ith red ; the base is also more or less black. The second and 

 fifth bands are narrower, and converge with the first, to the 

 inner-margin, the outermost of these bands being again marked 

 with red. Towards the hind-margin are two continuous fes- 

 tooned black bands, the ends of the outermost toucliing the 

 margin. The hind-wings are more or less black at tlie base, 

 close to which a red spot is generally visible, and there are some 

 small black spots on the disc. Beyond is a row of red spots, 

 bordered within with black, and there are two sub-marginal 

 lines which form crescents, but not the abrupt festoons of those 

 on the fore-wings. Towards the tip of tlie fore-wings is a 

 transparent spot. The under side is similar, but paler, and the 

 light portions of the hind-wings have a peculiar white glazed 

 appearance. The body is black, with yellow spots on the 

 abdomen. 



The larva, which feeds on various species of Arisiolochia^ is 

 variable in colour, being reddish-yellow, brown, or dull reddish- 

 green, with rows of interrupted black lines. It has six rows of 

 fleshy orange-yellow spines, tufted with black at the end. 



This Butterfly is frequently considered to be a local form 

 of the Spanish Thais ricmina (Linn.), which difl'ers by its 

 larger size and deep ochreous colour. The Rev. Douglas 

 C. Timins, who observed T. viedesicaste in South France, 

 writes: — "It is less sluggish than some of the other species 

 of the genus, but seldom flies after two or three o'clock, 

 and prefers localities where the beautiful rose-coloured cistua 



