(Aon 4) 
XIX. The Butterflies of Aragon. By Mrs. M. De ta B. 
Nicwotn. Communicated by Sie Georce F. 
Hampson, Bart., B.A. 
[Read Nov. 17th, 1897.] 
So few English collectors are acquainted with the Lepi- 
doptera of the uplands of Aragon, that a short account of 
an excursion in that district, during June and July last, 
may be interesting. 
The ancient kingdoms of Castile and Aragon are 
bounded by a mass of rocky mountains, in which three 
large rivers rise, viz., the Tagus, flowing westwards to 
the Atlantic, and the Jucar and the Guadalaviar, flow- 
ing eastwards and southwards to the Mediterranean. 
From the northern slopes of the Sierra de Albarracin the 
streams run northwards and join the distant Ebro. It 
will, therefore, be apparent that these mountains form 
one of the principal watersheds of Kastern Spain; they 
extend for about seventy miles from Cuenca on the west, 
to Teruel on the east. Both of these towns are about 
3000 feet above the sea, and all the intervening country 
is considerably above that level, the mountains averaging 
about 5000 feet, and attaining a height of nearly 6000 
feet on the higher summits. Albarracin is in the midst 
of these sierras, but much nearer to Teruel than to 
Cuenca, from which it is separated by about sixty miles 
of forest and mountain—a beautiful and _ interesting 
country, well wooded, thinly inhabited, with barren 
mountains, smiling valleys, and wide grassy hollows, all 
rather less known to the Englishman than Japan or New- 
foundland. 
There is much variety of geological formation; the 
higher ridges are mostly mountain limestone or lias, and 
the main valleys are cut through some kind of sandstone 
or softer rock. There is one large mass of porphyritic 
formation, north of Albarracin, extending about ten miles 
TRANS, ENT. SOC. LOND. 1897.—pParTiv. (DEC.) 
