NOTES ON THE LIFE-HISTORY OF PARARGE HIERA. d 



double-brooded. It is true that Dr. Kane and Dr. Lang give 

 the emergence as from May to July, but, as the species occurs 

 in Central Europe from about 2000 ft. to considerably over 

 5000 ft., the difference of altitude would account for this varia- 

 tion of dates, without assuming that there was more than one 

 brood ; but Mr. Wheeler, in his ' Butterflies of Switzerland and 

 the Alps of Central Europe,' gives two records which seem to 

 prove conclusively that — in some instances, at any rate — Pararge 

 hiera is double-brooded ; they are " Gruyeres, August 30th, 

 1897 (Rowland-Brown)," and " Certosa di Pesio, June and end 

 of August, 1892 (Norris)." Both of these localities are at about 

 2000 ft., and therefore it seems probable that P. hiera is a 

 single-brooded species everywhere except at the lowest levels on 

 which it is found. I may mention that the females captured by 

 me at Semmering were taken at an altitude of from 3000 ft. 

 to 3500 ft. 



[Prior to the publication of Mr. Sheldon's paper it may be 

 safely assumed that no British entomologist had successfully 

 bred Pararge hiera through all its earlier stages. However, 

 Herr J. Peyron, a member of the Entomological Society of 

 Stockholm (Ent. Tidskrift, 1905, pp. 249-251), supplements 

 Spuler's scanty note on the larva (Piaupen Gross-Schmette. 

 Euroi3as, p. 50) with an excellent life-history of the species, in- 

 cluding many interesting observations additional to and con- 

 firming Mr. Sheldon's. 



The larva is hatched eight days after oviposition, and pupates 

 after three moults only, " as is the rule in the genus Pararge," 

 extended over six weeks in all. Under naturfj conditions the 

 pupa is suspended head downwards from a blade of the food- 

 plant {Phleum pi'atense), without other attachment ("fritt"), and 

 in Scandinavia, as doubtless elsewhere where there is but one 

 brood, passes the winter in this stage. 



Spuler, quoting Dorfmeister, of Vienna, but without reference 

 to any particular publication, gives festuca as the food-plant. 

 Frionnet (Premiers Etats des Lepids. Fr., p. 263) supplements 

 this with holcus, probably on the same authority, adding " larva 

 from September to April," which, in the light of Herr Peyron's 

 and Mr. Sheldon's researches, is obviously inaccurate. 



As to the two emergences, Frey (Lepid. der Schweitz, Le- 

 mann's translation, p. 36) leaves us in no doubt. He writes : 

 " Butterfly twice a year in the plains and hilly districts. First 

 brood from the first days of May, and then in July and August." 

 At greater altitudes there is only one emergence, as, for instance, 

 in the Balkans, where Mrs. NichoU found it very common on 

 the Rilo Dagh, at about 5-6000 ft., in June (Elwes, "Butterflies 

 of Bulgaria," Trans. Eut. Soc. Lond. 1900). I myself took it on 

 the summit of the Stelvio in mid-July, 1900, but I regret to say 

 that, on looking over my series, I can find none of those recorded 



B 2 



