BUTTERFLY-HUNTING IN THE BALKANS. 105 



the Black Mountain into Montenegro, subsequently returning 

 to the sea and proceeding to Gravosa, whence I was able to 

 get on by railway to Herzegovina and Bosnia. I shall relate 

 my experiences in the different countries visited, devoting a 

 short chapter to each. 



Dalmatia. 

 It is a far cry from my Hertfordshire home at St. Albans to 

 Spalato, the charmingly situated Dalmatian seaport, some two 

 hundred miles down the eastern coast of the Adriatic, but there 

 is a connecting link between the two places which makes Spalato 

 a particularly interesting spot to me. It was under the Diocletian 

 persecution that the martyrdom of St. Alban took place. The 

 great emperor was a native of what is now Dalmatia, and when, 

 growing old, the cares of government became too heavy for 

 him, he did what a good many Roman emperors were unable 

 to accomplish — he laid them down without also laying down his 

 life, and, retiring to his native land, built himself a splendid 

 palace. When the Avars overran the country and destroyed 

 the Roman town of Salona, the inhabitants took refuge inside 

 the strong walls of Diocletian's great house, actually building 

 their new city in its spacious enclosures. So, on June 2nd, 

 as I strolled up the slopes of Monte Marjan, I thought of all 

 that the decree of the mighty Dalmatian emperor of Rome had 

 meant for British Christianity, and remembered that the very 

 existence of my native city might be directly attributed to it. 

 But I was awakened from dreams of the past by a small white 

 butterfly which fluttered across the path. A turn of the net and 

 my first specimen of Pieris ergane was secured, the pioneer of a 

 considerable series captured during the Balkan journey. The 

 insect which before all others I was especially on the look- 

 out for was Melanargia larissa var. herta, Hb., and seeing a 

 grassy place which appeared to be a likely spot, I climbed 

 the wall of the enclosure and succeeded in beating out and 

 securing a specimen of this local Satyrid. Herta is the variety 

 of larissa which occurs in the Western Balkans, and is distin- 

 guished from the nymotypical form in having the disc of the 

 wings white. Returning to the path I took two specimens 

 of Thecla spini, which is a rather abundant insect in this 

 part of the world. On the flower-heads the commonest of our 

 Palaearctic Syntomids, Si/ntomis phegea, was disporting itself, 

 while Ccenonympha pamphilus, which could not be distinguished 

 from the British form, flew by the wayside. When I reached 

 the top of the hill I found an old and familiar friend, Vanessa 

 cardui, careering boldly about as is its wont, but while 1 sat on 

 a wall watching its gambols with one eye, and with the other 

 the crowd of young Dalmatians swinging and playing in the 

 grounds of the restaurant, the gathering clouds warned me 



ENTOM. MARCH, 1913. I 



