THE SAIYRINE GENUS MELANARGIA, MEIGEN. 123 



Eecord,' xxii, p. 58, 1910) says that "the exploration of the big 



forests to the east of Axat proved very disappointing . . . 



Butterflies were almost wanting, entirely absent from the 



meadows"; where (7a/rt^ea might have been expected thus early 



in these latitudes. M. Pu)ndoa"s statement that M.Eene Oberthlir 



met with cjalatea in the Pyrenees-Orientales in 1908, though no 



particulars or dates are otherwise forthcoming, probably refers to 



the Boucheville locality. Meanwhile, the war has interfered 



with further investigation of the Cepie district, but it may be 



hoped that in happier times M. Rene will resume his researches 



if the great Oberthlir collection does not already contain examples 



of what may prove to be intermediates between lachesis and 



galatea. 



Harrow Weald, 



April 1st, 1917. 



.SOME REMARKS ON THE DISTRIBUTION AND DE- 

 VELOPMENT OF SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF 

 THE SATYRINE GENUS MELANARGIA, MEIGEN, 

 IN ITALY, FRANCE, SPAIN, AND ALGERIA. 



By H. Rowland-Brown, M.A., F.E.S. 



There are three species of the genus Mekatargia, Meigen, 

 which seem to have been developed from a common stirps within 

 comparatively recent times ; four, if Melanargia liicasi, Rambur, 

 is to be regarded as something more than the North African 

 form of M. galatea. They are Melanargia lachesis, Hb., M. galatea, 

 L., and M. iapygia, Cyr. M. galatea, either typical or in its 

 southern habitats as var. procida, Hbsi, is common throughout 

 tbe greater part of Central and Southern Europe, though it does 

 not exist in Spain south of the Cantabrians, and in certain of 

 the French Departments neighbouring on tbe Mediterranean 

 west of Var. Its northern limits are in the United Kingdom, in 

 Yorkshire ; it does not occur in any of the Scandinavian countries, 

 and in the north-east the life-line may be drawn through Breda 

 in Holland, Liineberg, the Harz Mountains to Bremen and Elber- 

 feld, extending east apparently (according to Speyer not north 

 of 52^° N. lat.), over the great plain no further than Lievland, 

 and the Volga region between Bugulma and Ufa where it is rare, 

 and thence south to Sarepta through the Steppe (' Geographische 

 Verbreitung der Schmett. Deutschlands und der Schweitz,' vol. i, 

 p. 190). Reaching, also along the Karpathian to Rumania and 

 throughout the Balkan peninsula, it pervades North Asia Minor, 

 finding its southern extreme at about latitude 34° (?), being 

 superseded hereabouts by M. titea and M. teneates.* 



* Cp. " Butterflies of Syria and Palestine," Miss M. E. Fountaine (' Ento- 

 mologist,' XXXV, p. 99, 1902.) 



