HUNGARIAN AND AUSTRIAN BUTTERFLIES IN 1910. 273 



informed me they had been so all the season, and I have a much 

 more vivid appreciation of the kind hospitality we received than 

 of the specimens captured. Before lunch we took our nets and 

 wandered through some very likely country ; a few Melitcea trivia, 

 C. thersamon, Argynnis adippe var. cleodoxa, P. argyrognomon, 

 and E. argiades var. polysperchon were all we observed. 



Journeying from Budapest to Vienna, an unfortunate break- 

 down in the health of one of my party necessitated a fortnight's 

 stay at the latter place. During this period the only entomology 

 I could manage was a few hours on May 31st at Modling. Most 

 of this time was spent in trying to get out of the long streets of 

 the town into the country, which was unknown to me, conse- 

 quently my time with the net was very limited, the event of the 

 day being the capture of a splendid male of C. myrmidone, un- 

 expectedly met with in a lane, too narrow for him to evade me, 

 and netted before he realized his danger. The only other 

 capture here worthy of note was a specimen of Carter oceplialus 

 jjalcemon. Erehia medusa was not infrequent. 



The doctor at Vienna found that it was necessary for the 

 invalid to go to a mountain resort for a time in order to re- 

 cuperate. On June 7th we moved on to Semmering accordingly. 

 Semmering is situated in the old Austrian Province of Styria, 

 some seventy miles south-west of Vienna, and on the direct 

 railway route from that place to Trieste, at an altitude of about 

 3000 ft., and as it is amongst the extreme eastern spurs of the 

 Alps, I hoped to meet with some interesting butterflies ; but in 

 this respect I was considerably disappointed, though for what 

 reason I do not quite understand. 



The surroundings — a maze of valleys, woods, subalpine 

 meadows ablaze with flowers, swamps, and levels of from 

 2000 ft. to 5000 ft. — seemed ideal ground for a June locality; 

 but whether it was owing to a bad season, or some other cause, 

 I never saw butterflies so scarce in Continental Europe. I was 

 out each day from June 7th to June 19th, but my entire efforts 

 could only account for thirty-one species, and the number seen 

 of each species was in almost every case very few ; so few, in 

 fact, that it was no unusual event for me to spend a morning 

 amongst ideal surroundings, and come back with half a dozen 

 specimens. 



The northern slope of the railway valley leading to Miirz- 

 zuschlag was perhaps the locality in which occurred the most 

 specimens ; pre-eminent in numbers amongst those was Erehia 

 medusa of the hippomedusa form — the only Erehia seen at 

 Semmering — and Cupido minimus, and both of these species, 

 especially the latter, were in great numbers, and newly emerged 

 at the commencement of my visit. With them Nemeobius lucina 

 flitted about here and there, and Hesperia malvce was common. 

 Other species occurring in this valley were Chrysophanus 



ENTOM. — OCTOBER, 1910. Y 



