Publ. 16. III. 1009. CHRYSOPHANUS. Bij Dr. A. Seitz. 285 



Pupa yellowish brown like leather, spotted with black; it lies free on the ground (Fbyee). The 

 butterflies appear at the end of Maj-, in the northern districts a little later (early in June) and are found 

 until late in July in luxuriant meadows, where they settle on umbellifers or in the grass, the ^^ always 

 with the wings half open. The localities are often of verj' small extent, sometimes being only a certain part of 

 a meadow, where the species, however, is nearly always very plentiful. The 5$ appear about 2 — 3 weeks 

 after the (Ji^ have commenced to fly. The form eunjhia of the high Alps does not begin to fly befori the 

 very end of July and is on the wing into September; the northern stieberi also does not appear before July. 



C. phoebus Black. Besides phlaeas the only North African Clirysoplianus; from Morocco. Very close phoehus. 

 to ther.'samon; above fiery golden red with a narrow black margin which is enlarged to a triangle at the 

 apex of the forewing; on the disc prominent small black spots. Hindwing strongly shaded with black at 

 the anal margin, spotted with black on the disc. Forewing beneath on the reddish yellow disc with 3 large 

 l)lack spots which have pale borders. Hindwing beneath with small black dots edged with light grey; a 

 thin white line before the fringes of both wings. Is best placed between thersamon and asabinus; only 

 recently discovered. 



C. alciphron Boit. (= lampetie Schiff., virgaureae Hufn., hiere F., helle Bkh., hipponoe Esp.) (77 a), alciphron. 

 Lighter yellow and less golden; the upperside of the (J in the name-typical form quite unlike that of any 

 other Chrysophanus, being so dusted with dark scales which have a bluish gloss that the ground-colour is 

 almost suppressed. This dark scaling of the (J is only interrupted by the black discal spots and a reddish 

 yellow distal band of the hindwing. The underside is rather uniform in colour, on the disc of the fore- 

 wing somewhat brighter reddish yellow, with numerous, rather large, round ocelli strongly edged with 

 whitish. In Central Europe and the southern districts of North Europe, from the shores of the North Sea 

 and the Baltic provinces to the chain of the Alps, and from North France to the Altai and Mongolia. — 

 In the South the species is represented by the much larger gordius Suh. (77 a), of which both sexes are (jordius. 

 bright yellow-red above, with very prominent and heavy black spots above and yellow instead^of blue-grey 

 underside to the hindwing. — There exist nearly all intergradations between gordius and the typical 

 form, for instance meliboeus Stgr. (77 a), in whose <J(J, which are larger than alciphrori, but smaller than meliboeus. 

 most gordius, the yellowish red ground-colour breaks through the dark scaling, though it is less pure than 

 in true gordius: in Greece, Asia Minor and North Persia; Greek specimens differ a little from those from 

 Anterior Asia, but the differences are not sufficient to justify a separate name. — granadensis Bibbe (77 b) has granadensls. 

 at the most the size of alciphron, being often even smaller, but the spots of the upperside are larger than even 

 in gordius, with which it agrees in the bright yellowish red colour of the upperside; in Spain. — Among 

 gordius there occur also aberrant specimens which are transitions to the name-typical form. Steffanelli de- 

 scribed them as ab. intermedia from Boscolungo in Italy; the hindwing of the $ is dark except for a intermedia. 

 yellowish red submarginal band. Also the black spots may vary in a similar way, as is the case in the 

 preceding species of Clirysoplianus: In ab. subfasciata Scliultz (77 b), of which the type has been kindly lent subfasciata. 

 to me for figuring, all the spots of the upperside are so large that those of the submarginal row are united 

 to a band which is hardly interrupted by the veins. In ab. mutilata Scliultz the ocelli situated in the cells nmtilata. 

 on the underside are strongly developed, while the distal ones are nearly all absent. An aberration of 

 gordius with the ocelli of the underside similarly reduced has received the name ab. evanescens Gillm. In evaneseens. 

 ab. viduata Schultz, an aberration of alciphron, the ocelli of the underside are so weakly represented above viduata. 

 that the upperside appears almost without spots, ab. infulvata Schultz is the name for $$ which are quite infulcata. 

 uniformly black-brown above, being even devoid of the reddish yellow submarginal band on the hindwing 

 and corresponding to ab. nt^ca of hippothoe. The phenomenon often observed in hippothoe that the ocelli 

 are modified into streaks is according to Schultz considerably rarer in alciphron; Schultz names such spe- 

 cimens ab. constricta. — Egg, as most Chrysopha7ius-eggs, flattened, green-yellow, with the surface retic- conslricta. 

 ulate. Larva from August to early May, green, almost unicolorous, along the back and also on each 

 side a whitish green longitudinal stripe shaded with dark; the head, which is only visible when feeding, 

 black-brown; on Rumex. Pupa fastened near the ground by means of very thin threads, olive-green, 

 with darker shadowy stripes. The butterflies are on the wing in June and July; thej'^ are less confined to 

 definite restricted flight-places than the preceding species, but occur much more singly and like drier local- 

 ities. They are busy visiting flowers, especially those of brambles at sunny waysides; gordius is especially 

 fond of clusters of thyme and Sedum album according to Coukvoisieb, and ascends in the Alps up to 10 000 ft. 



C. phlaeas L. (77 b). The sexes alike. Forewing golden red with black margin and black discal phlaeas. 

 dots; hindwing blackish, with red submarginal band. Underside of forewing similar to upper, but the 

 margin earth-brown like the whole underside of the hindwing, the latter usually bearing some small dis- 

 persed dots, which are generally less numerous than in the specimen figured. Distributed over the whole 

 Palearctic Region into the far north: from the Atlantic islands to the east-coast of Japan, southward to 

 the oases of the Sahara and the north of the Indian territory, also in North America; seasonally and 

 geographically variable. In the whole of southern Europe there occur among the summer broods larger, 

 darker and tailed specimens, but not everywhere and not constantly; this is the form eleus F. (77 c). eleus. 



I 36 



