LcpidopUra of the Altai Mountains. 389 



105. A. var. vel. bon. sp. arsilache, Esp. 



The only places where I took what I believe to be the 

 Siberian representative of this form were by the side of a 

 river, in a flat marshy meadow surrounded by willows at 

 6000 feet, and in flat swampy forest in the Bashkaus 

 country at 4000—5000 feet. I paid particular attention to 

 the localities, as it has been remarked, both in Lapland by 

 Staudinger, and by myself and others in the Alps, that 

 arsilache is confined to boggy ground, and does not fly like 

 vales on grassy mountain sides. The diff'erence m size, 

 pattern, and colour of these specimens from ixdes is just 

 about the same as in Europe, they are smaller with nar- 

 rower and more pointed wings. I found no real peat-bog 

 in the Altai, but it seemed to me that this form liad 

 confined itself as nearly as possible to flat and marshy 

 around and was never on the hill-sides. Herz records 

 Irsilache from the Vitim river, but three female specimens 

 taken by Czekanowsky in North -Eastern Siberia nre dis- 

 tinct in appearance and like nothing else I have seen. My 

 numerous specimens from Lapland, Norway, and Finland 

 vary as much as they do in the Alps, and I am unable to 

 say whether many of them are ^palcs or arsilache. It is 

 hicrhly desirable that these two supposed species should be 

 bred under similar conditions, which would be easy enough 

 to any one resident in Switzerland. 



106. A. dia, L., and var. alpina, var. nov. 



This was fresh out at Kazan on May 21st, and at 

 Biisk on June 4th. I did not see it in the mountains 

 until I got to Darkoti, where it was abundant during the 

 second week in July. All those taken here, though for the 

 most part worn when I got them, are much darker and 

 smaller than any other specimens of dia I have seen, and 

 can be separated at a glance, both from the first brood of 

 the low country, and from those of the second generation, 

 which I found fresh out when I left the mountains in the 

 first week in August. I have never heard of dia as a high 

 Alpine butterfly before, and believe that in Europe it is 

 double brooded wherever it occurs. This can hardly be the 

 case at an elevation where the summer lasts only about six 

 weeks A few specimens taken by Jacobson at Ongodai were 

 somewhat paler, but evidently belong to the single-brooded 

 form which I propose to call alpina. Judging from what 



