MELITAEA. By Dr. A. Seitz. • 215 



and with very obsolescent nuirkings on tlie upperside, the roddisli yellow colovir of the upperside being only 

 preserved in the dull reddisii submai-ginal hand of tlie hindwing. (in the higher Alps, and in specimens with 

 more brightly marked underside in the Altai. — A form similar to meropp but still more unicolorous, is said 

 to occur in the Alatau and was named asiatica by St.a,udinger. However, the specimens which usually are known asiatica. 

 under this name come from Asia Minor and belong to amasina. As merope has also a different larva and food- 

 plant than aurinia (according to Rt>HL) and the butterfly has different habits and flight, this insect might 

 perhaps be separated as a distinct species. — Elwes was right in saying of the numerous different forms of 

 aurinia tliat a con\plete collection of this species from all its flight-places would consist of unbroken series which 

 w'ould render it impossible to sharply separate the hitherto named races. However, the differences between 

 most of the forms mentioned above are constant and trenchant, sometimes even the habits being different. 

 For instance, merope differs from nymotypical aurinia in its flight, as already mentioned. The latter flies 

 about a yartl above tiie ground witii a quiet swimming fliglit, which is not essentially different from that of 

 other Melitaea. Tlie small merope with its pointed wings on the contrary almost has the rushing flight of a 

 moth, darting so fast and low over the alpine n\eadows that it is hardly possible to follow a specimen with the 

 eyes. — The eggs, of wliich the heavy- bodied $$ contain very many, are deposited in batches; they are brown 

 and ribbed. Larva of M. aurinia blackish, covered with numerous light dots, which are sometimes seriate dor- 

 sally and laterally; the short fleshy thorns black, paler at the base, densely clothed with black hairs; head black, 

 abdominal legs brown, according to Rohl only on Scabiosa succincta, according to Bromilow particularly 

 on Centranthus ruber, also on Digitalis, Teucrium and other plants. It hibernates gregariously in a common 

 web, changing in spring into a dull white, black-dotted chrysalis \\ith small yellow spots on the abdomen. The 

 butterfly is on the wing late in .May and in June (tlie alpine forms from July onward), being said to fly ex- 

 ceptionally also in August; on flowering meadows and particularly in openings in woods; with the exception 

 of the outlying districts abundant in its flight-places, although tliese are scattered. 



M. cinxia L. (= pilosellae Rott., delia Schiff., trivia Schrk., phoebe Godt.) (65 e, f). Above uniformly cinxia. 

 pale yellowisli red, marked with black, somewhat recalling a chess-board, the w'hite fringes being checkered. 

 A row of heavy black dots in the submarginal row of spots on the liindwing is characteristic. Excepting the 

 pale yellow black-dotted apex, the forewing beneath uniformly reddish leather-yellow, with dispersed black 

 spots, which vary in number. The species is far less variable than the preceding ones, and, though of wide 

 distribution, has not developed into many races. \ ery black specimens in which the yello^^■ish red colour 

 of the hindwing has almost disappeared — ab. obscurior Stgr. in litt. (65f) — or is replaced by black on both obscurior. 

 wings — ab. horvathi Aign. — occur singly in Austria and Hungary. — In the Altai there occurs a plentiful horvathi. 

 and constant, very small and strongly blackish form, tschujaca form, nov., according to Elwes at an altitude tsdmjaca. 

 of 7000 ft. — Clarissa Stgr. (65f), from Syria and Mesopotamia, is in the cj likewise small, but very abundantly Clarissa. 

 light yellow, with the dots in the submarginal spots of the hindwing very feeble; in this form also the underside 

 is strongly modified, the russet-red submarginal band of the hindwing being pale and the yellowish white 

 median band much widened. — In heynei Riihl (65f), described from the Alai Mts. but widely distributed hevnei. 

 in eastern Anterior Asia, the black markings are much reduced above, which also occurs in occasional aber- 

 rations in Europe, either only in the outer half of the wings — ab. fulla Quens. — or on the greater part of fuiia. 

 the forewing — ab. uhryki Aign., but in this case only irregularly and in the various specimens not in the same ufiryki. 

 way. — Persian individuals are rather small and on the whole paler than European ones ; this is amardea Gr.- amardea. 

 Grsh. — Diffuse markings and abnormal distribution of the black colour above occurs in individual varieties 

 (ab. mocsanji Aign.), while ab. witteiGeest is distinguished by the underside, the forewingbeneath bearing markings 

 only before the apex and the two black lunate lines in the middle of the hindwing being united to a broad black 

 macular band. — cinxia is not so widely distributed as aurinia; from the North Sea and the Baltic to the 

 Mediterranean, but not occurring in North Africa, and from France and Northern Spain to the Altai, almost 

 everywhere plentiful on wide grassy roads in tlie woods, in meadows and in clearings. Larva from July until 

 April, black, with red head and bluish white small warts, the prolegs red-brown; hibernates gregariously in a 

 common web; on Viola, Veronica, Plantago, Hieraceum, and other plants. Pupa whitish grey, with yellow 

 warts. The butterflies in May and June (in the mountains later), locally single specimens observed also in 

 summer. 



M. arduinna Esp. (= rhodopensis H.-Schaff.) (65f). Not dissimilar to the preceding species, bearing arduinna. 

 likewise black dots in the submarginal reddish yellow spots of the hindwing, but the forewing much more 

 obtuse, distally broader, moreover usually duller coloured, being nu)re brownish; the distal marginal area darker, 

 the black markings being strongly developed, the median ai'ea with less markings, the black lunate lines being 

 partly obsolescent, partly composed of irregular remnants. The underside, too, particularly on the hindwing, 

 is essentially lighter in consequence of the black markings being broken u]) and reduced. From Croatia eastward, 

 on the lower Danube, the Wolga, throughout the Balcan Peninsula and Anterior Asia to Turkestan, according 



