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fascination to British entomologists visiting the south of Europe as 

 the genus Thais, the pattern on the wings, the general appearance and 

 habits, being so unlike any species occuning in our own country. 

 My first wish (and I believe it to be a general one) was to see a Thais 

 on the wing. I remember meeting a collector at Hyeres who had 

 been searching all day for that beautiful species, T. medesicaste ; 

 and although there was an abundance of other species to which 

 he might have directed his attention, his sole object appeared to 

 be the capture of that particular butterfly. The genus Thais 

 chiefly belongs to the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and North 

 African faunas. There are three species occurring in Europe ; one is 

 found along the shores of the Black Sea, commonly in Armenia, and 

 as far westward as Gallipoli in Turkey ; the remaining two are 

 more especially attached to the shores of the Mediterranean. 



All the species of the genus Thais select the warmest situations 

 in which to undergo their transformations, and the butterflies are 

 only to be seen on the wing during the brightest sunshine ; the 

 merest cloud influences them, and they disappear like magic into 

 the grass, reappearing instantly on the return of sunshine. They 

 seem to be more sensitive to the effects of light and shade than 

 the Erebioe. The larva? are cylindrical, rather short, and covered 

 with spine-like protuberances. They are somewhat sluggish, and all 

 three species feed on Aristolochia. The full-grown larva being 

 found during the daytime at the roots of the plants suggests its 

 being a night feeder. The pupa is attached by the tail, and by a 

 silken band round the body, like other Papilionidae. 



I will now briefly refer to the species. In Europe Thais cerisyi 

 appears only to be found in Greece and Turkey and the adjoining 

 islands. It is more plentiful in Asia Minor, is common in Armenia, 

 and extends as far as the Caucasus, where it assumes a different form 

 — var. caucasica. The series exhibited were nearly all bred from 

 pupa? received from Armenia, and probably refer to the var. deyrollei, 

 peculiar to Asia Minor There seems to be very little, if any, differ- 

 ence between these and the type which occurs in Turkey. The larva? 

 feed on Aristolochia has fata. 



Thais polyxena is the commonest of the genus, and is more gene- 

 rally distributed, and extends farther north than any of the other 

 species, occurring in Central Europe and as far eastward as South 

 Russia. Although the species occurs as far north as Briinn, it is 

 curious that it should be absent from Switzerland. Dr. Frey 

 mentions, however, that it was once captured a long time ago in 

 Canton Tessin. It is recorded as occurring in abundance on April 

 19th, 1857, in the vineyards of the Italian market town Orta, which 

 is not so very far distant from Canton Tessin. On the Riviera (and 

 in Italy, according to German authors) another form of this species 

 occurs. It is a shade smaller, the scroll on the outer margins of both 

 wings is less deeply dentate, and other differences present themselves, 

 making a well-defined variety — var. cassandra. 



