LBPIDOPTERA AT ALBARRACIN. 311 



is narrower, the spots on the under side are smaller, and the bases of 

 superiors underneath have more blue scales, the ground colour under- 

 neath is equally pure white. My only female is quite without blue 

 on the upper side, the orange lunules are, in this example, continuous 

 on the upper sides of all wings. A most interesting male, taken by 

 Mr. Jones after my departure, has the characteristics of ab. casaicus, 

 which, of course, has hitherto only been taken in North-west Spain 

 by Dr. Chapman. 



P. zephyrus var. hesperica. — This species was one of the chief 

 objects of our search, for it is exceptionally rare in our collections ; 

 the only examples I know of in Britain are two males in the British 

 Museum, which are labelled "Andalusia," and so far as I am aware it 

 had never been seen alive by any British lepidopterist. It is 

 described in Zapater's Catalogue as rare and local. 



My first capture, a quite fresh male, was taken by the side of the 

 road near Santa Croche on May 27th. From this date we searched 

 carefully and widely each day for further specimens, but fruitlessly, 

 until June 5th, on which day Mr. Jones took another male ; unfor- 

 tunately he did not recognize it at the time of capture, so the clue of 

 its locality was lost. However, on June 6th I at length found a very 

 small spot where it was not uncommon, and here on this day I 

 captured fourteen good examples, and others on succeeding days. 

 This locality was a small plateau, perhaps half a mile from the spot 

 where I captured my first specimen, and amongst the hills skirting 

 the left bank of the Guadalavier. On this plateau grew isolated 

 examples of the savin trees which are the principal timber clothing 

 these hills ; the undergrowth consisted of spiny plants, chiefly 

 leguminous, a species of Malva, Asphodel, and other southern plants, 

 which included a low growing, very hirsute, leguminous plant, with 

 a somewhat inconspicuous light yellow flower, the rather large head 

 of which is borne on a stem two or three inches long. This plant 

 the authorities at Kew have kindly identified for me, it is the 

 Astragalus aragonensis of Freyn. On my first visit to this spot, I 

 noticed flying slowly over it, and evidently depositing ova, a female 

 Lycaenid, which after watching for some time I netted, and found 

 to my great delight was this much desired species. I then 

 searched the plant it had been frequenting and found on it several 

 freshly deposited ova. On a subsequent date I found another 

 locality even smaller than the first, in which a few examples could 

 be found most days ; here again the Astragalus, which is at Albarracin 

 an exceedingly local plant, grew. 



In size my specimens are smaller than those in the National 

 Collection, the largest of which expands 40 mm. ; my largest male 

 expands 38 mm., and the largest female 35 mm. The average size of 

 my specimens would be about 3 mm. less than these sizes. 



P. var. hesperica is excessively local, and only found in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood of its food-plant. 



P. astrarche. — Zapater says this species is very abundant; we did 

 not find it so, though odd specimens were to be taken each day in 

 widely distributed localities after its first appearance on May 21st. 

 The form is a southern one, with well marked orange lunules on all 

 the wings. 



