ANTHROCERA ACHILLE.E, ESPER, IN SCOTLAND. * 221 



he was there in 1914. The brothers Speyer fix the Russian 

 northern limit at 55° lat. N. to the Urals, and Staudinger 

 includes it in the trans-Ural regions of Siberia, which latter 

 should be tke primitive cradle of the entire race. Achillece. 

 therefore, is rather, an Anthrocerid of moderate elevations and 

 of the plains. Of my several series — about one hundred examples 

 in all — the highest captured are from the Dolomites of Cortina 

 (4000-5000 ft.) and the Mendel Pass — about the same altitude, 

 while I have it at the other extreme in the beautiful form 

 viiniacea, Obertblir, fromDompierre-sur-Mer, Charente-Inferieure, 

 almost within sight of the sea at La Rochelle. It swarmed in 

 July, 1912, on the top of the Suskului above Herkulesbad, and 

 throughout is more abundant on limestone and chalk than on 

 other formations. In no single instance, where I have taken it 

 myself as above, or in other localities from which I have received 

 it, e.g. Cannes (var. achilledides) , the Aurunci Mountains of 

 central Italy, and the heights near Salonika, do the topographical 

 conditions in the least degree suggest those of the west of Scotland. 

 Cortina is dolomitic, but I think every other locality (except 

 perhaps Digne) is on chalk or limestone, and that part of Digne, 

 where it is commonest, is on the Dourbes and in those valleys 

 where the blue clayey soil is wanting. 



Indeed, its occurrence anywhere but on dry hills and the like 

 seems unusual. The French authorities are unanimous in this 

 respect. Dr. Macker, for example, states * in a footnote that 

 he took numerous examples in one of the meadows of the Semwald 

 July, 1872. " Their presence," he adds, "in the marshy meadows 

 was no doubt due to an accidental egg-laying, for the species, 

 ordinarily rare in Alsace, is confined to the dry chalk slopes." 



It is clear, therefore, from these and my own observations, 

 that A. achillece can exist and flourish in a variety of environment, 

 and in view of the association of other Lepidoptera of west Scotland 

 with the Lepidoptera of north Ireland, it would be no surprise 

 were achillece to turn up still further west in the sister island. 



The French records further suggest that achillece is double- 

 brooded in the south and central regions at all events — e.g. 

 Guenee reports it on dry grassy hills at Maiutenon (Eure-et- 

 Loir) in May and July, and M. Rondou's "May to July" 

 {op. cit.) is to the same effect I think. Milliere says definitely 

 that there are two generations in the Alpes-Maritimes — May and 

 July. In the east, in the Haute-Marue, where it is " always 

 very rare," M. Frionnet found the larva on Lotus {? corniculaius) 

 in May only, and Boisduval gives it one emergence in the 

 environs of Paris, also in May (' Monographe des Zygenides'). 



Mr. Percy Reid, whose " Hunt for Zygcena achillece,'" pub- 

 lished in the ' Entomologist ' {antea, p. 188), has inspired this 



* ' Catalogue des Lepids. d'Alsace,' par H. de Peyeremhoff, 2me Edition 

 Colraar, 1880, p. 47. 



