( Ixxxvii ) 



a number of moths from Sarepta, and read the following 

 notes : — 



Sarepta, where I collected with Mr. W. G. Sheldon from the 

 middle of May to the end of June, is situated on the Volga 

 about 300 miles from the Caspian Sea, which lies in a south- 

 easterly direction. Although in the same latitude as Orleans 

 in France, the winters are far colder— for the Volga is then 

 frozen over — and the summers far hotter ; these extremes maj 

 have some influence in producing the interesting forms which 

 are there found, being in some cases larger and more highly 

 coloured. 



In the immediate neighbourhood of Sarepta the ground is 

 perfectly flat, but as one approaches the railway line about a 

 mile distant there is a range of hills with an elevation of about 

 300 ft. which follow the Volga northwards for many hundreds 

 of miles. They may be described as " sand dunes," which 

 they really are, covered with vegetation of a scanty nature, 

 chiefly a species of Artemisia — the sand, however, in places 

 comes strongly in evidence. These hills are intersected by 

 numerous ravines similar to those we are so familiar with in 

 Spain, formed by the water draining the tableland above. 



These " dunes " are known by the Russians as " steppes." 

 On the wind-swept tableland above — from which I may inci- 

 dentally mention there is a grand view of the Volga with its 

 numerous channels and islands — there is little lepidopterous 

 life beyond a few wandering Colias and that beautiful geo- 

 meter Aspilates mundataria. It is in the sheltered ravines, 

 in which a more varied flora has established itself, that 

 lepidopterous life becomes plentiful. The ravines are the 

 homes of the moths here exhibited — in the woods they are 

 not so abundant. It was in the forests, the " Tschapurnik 

 Wald," for instance, which is some miles in extent, where 

 butterfly life was so abundant — in the open spaces three or 

 four species at once were to be seen in the utmost profusion. 

 For a parallel one must visit a Swiss meadow in June. This 

 forest gave one the impression of a very ancient one, to judge 

 from the size of the oak and other trees, and is possibly the 

 remnant of a forest in the distant past, which covered a large 

 area of that portion of south-east Russia. 



