EKEBIA MANTO AND ITS VARIETIES. 



145 



come after. E. gorge, epiphron, pharte, and pronoe var. pitho had 

 probably been common, but were now represented by a few very 

 worn specimens. 



There remained, however, one species, E. manto, which was 

 present in abundance, and for the most part in first-rate order, 

 and this presented a range of variety sufficient to make interest- 

 ing collecting. The males certainly were not always fit for the 

 cabinet, but the females, which were nearly equally common, 

 were generally in splendid condition, and it was in them that 

 interest centred. 



Here manto seems to offer itself in almost every variety, and 

 the type-form was unusual. Var. or ab. coecilia was taken 

 occasionally, but always for some obscure reason too battered to 

 afford specimens. Not uncommon, too, was a very smajl form, 

 in size qualifying for ab. pyrrhula, Frey., but still retaining the 

 eye-spots too distinctly, and too much trace of the russet sur- 

 roundings, to quite justify the title. Very interesting, however, 

 was a form (almost the commonest) which I can only consider 

 to be var. vogesiaca, Christ, defined by Staudinger in his Cata- 

 logue, as females, ivithout the basal apots, on under side of hind 

 wings, but otherwise as type manto. This striking form both 

 the above authority and Kiihl seem to regard as restricted to the 

 Vosges, and it was therefore a pleasant surprise ; nor is it men- 

 tioned in Wheeler's * Butterflies of Switzerland.' But this was 

 by no means the extreme of variation presented by the Anthemoz 

 race. Hardly less common was a female form entirely without 

 markings on the U7ider side. At first I thought that this was a 

 hitherto unnoticed variety, and had distinguished it in my 

 cabinet as ab. indigcns, on my own responsibility. But on 

 further examination of Staudinger's Catalogue I found in the 

 first paragraph, under the type heading manto, " ab. female 

 trajanus, Hormuz. Soc. Ent. ix. 1895, p. 161 (al post. subt. basi 

 immaculata, maculis exterior, fere sequalibus)." I have not the 

 opportunity of searching the pages of the ' Societas Entomolo- 

 gica ' for a description of trajanus and comparing it with my 

 specimens from Champery, and can therefore only surmise that 

 my captures fall under this form. Again, var. vogesiaca, as 

 described more at length in Eiihl, is stated to be larger than 

 type, with the markings of the fore wings yellow and broader, 

 and seldom containing the black spots. Mine, from the Cham- 

 pery locality, are only of average size, with dull but rust- 

 coloured small patches on the upper side of fore wings with 

 fairly distinct eye-spots ; and are therefore to be regarded as a 

 separate variety, or a transition to var. vogesiaca. 



In any case I had reason to be much pleased with the result 

 of my visit to this locality, as it afforded two forms for Switzer- 

 land (new to me) after fifteen consecutive years' pursuit of 

 butterflies in that land of Erebias. The only other butterflies of 



