BUTTERFLY HUNTING IN THE SOUTH TYROL. 223 



to the same spot but a single female rewarded a morning's search. 

 The hills on the left-hand side of the railv^ay looking towards 

 Brennerbad are the best collecting-ground hereabouts, and 

 especially fertile in Erebidse. On this occasion I took or 

 observed E. epiphron var. cassiope, E. manto, with ab. ccecilia, 

 Hb., E. lappona (a small and poor form), E.goante, E. tyndarus, 

 E. gorge var. triopes (the invariable Tyrolese form), and, in the 

 fir-woods, E. euryale and E. ligca ; while, on July 27th and 28th, 

 I found E. pronoe, and E. mnestra (one). L. pheretes (females) was 

 the best of the "blues " present, a genus, by the way, very sparsely 

 represented, in my experience, throughout the eastern granitic and 

 dolomitic alps. ()n the day previous some members of our party 

 had taken Argynnis thore, in the old locality by the Brenner See, 

 and this, with A. amatlmsia, A. pales, A. niobe, and A. aglaia, 

 very plentifully, constituted all the Argynnidse seen by me in the 

 pass. The next day we adjourned to Mendel via Botzen, to find 

 that this once delightful and remote village had been *' dis- 

 covered " by means of a funicular railway, and the whole place 

 invaded by crowds of tourists. We were, however, rather fortu- 

 nate than otherwise in failing to secure adequate accommodation 

 at the bigger hotels, for we finally decided upon the little Hotel 

 Adler, where the manners of Herr Spitko were as welcome and 

 excellent as the cleanliness of his rooms and the quality of his 

 wine. Frankly, I cannot recommend the Mendel Pass as it now 

 is to the entomologist who looks for large hauls. Alpine species 

 there are none, or next to none. The mountains are thickly 

 girdled with green fir-forest ; the few higher points are close 

 cropped by cattle to their summits, and there is everywhere a 

 dearth of water. With these drawbacks, however, the views of 

 the distant Brenta and the towering Ortler ranges are beautiful 

 in the extreme, while there is at least one good, if limited, piece 

 of collecting-ground. The zizgags which scale the cliffs of Men- 

 del are extremely well-wooded with a variety of trees — willows, 

 poplars, and mountain ash — not usual in this class of road. 

 We found Pararge achine, just going over, in some numbers, 

 amongst the copses ; Vanessa antiopa, recently emerged and not 

 uncommon ; Apatura iris (a few, mostly worn, with immense 

 females); Satyrus hermione (fresh), and one S. circe,- Parnassius 

 apollo ; Papilio podalirius (frequent), and P. machaon, Argynnis 

 paphia, A. aglaia, A. niobe, and an occasional A. ino ; and of 

 Lycsenidse, L. escheri, L. meleager (one taken by Mr. Druce), L. 

 arion (much worn), L. hylas ; and at the bottom of the zigzags, 

 quite close to the Matschacher Hof, L. argiades, a fresh brood, 

 with ab. coretas, and an occasional L. orion. The only two 

 Erebias were E. ceto (scarce), and E. nerine, which is par excel- 

 lence the Mendel "ringlet." On the warm stone escarpments of 

 the roadside, wherever the attractive Sedum telephium grew, the 

 males were collected in countless numbers, the females always 



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