128 THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S RECORD. 
The underside varies greatly. As already noted, forms of ab. 
reducta are of common occurrence. In these aberrations, however, 
there is nearly always a general reduction of the white markings. 
Occasionally this reduction is so extreme that the band is reduced to a 
single spot at the outer margin of the wing. The costal basal spot, 
too, is occasionally wanting. Both these forms are rare. 
H. malvoides, Klw. and Edw. 
Speaking roughly, malvoides may be said to be confined to Europe, 
west of the Adriatic, and south of about 45° N. lat.: occurring in 
Spain and Portugal, Italy and Sicily, Southern France, and a very 
limited part of southern and eastern Switzerland, where it attains its 
most northerly habitat. Malvae only enters this area in one or two 
places in south-eastern Switzerland and north Italy. Perhaps I ought 
to apologise for repeating these facts, which are, of course, well known 
to the few that study the Hesperiids ; but I have seen notes announcing 
the capture of malvae at Vernet-les-Bains in 1913, and-of another 
alleged malvae at Aix in Provence, in 1914, which seems to suggest 
that a little repetition may still be of some use. 
Knowing that malvotdes was recorded from Martigny and malvae 
from Gryon, I spent a good deal of time looking for these species, in 
order to find out how closely they approached one another in this 
district, and whether they overlapped at any point. I may at once say 
that so far as the Rhone Valley is concerned, I am quite sure that they 
-do not overlap; but they are found in closer proximity there than any- 
where else that has at present been recorded. I found malroides at 
Branson, Follaterre, Vernayaz, and Salvan; higher up the valley it is 
found in many places, but Vernayaz is the nearest point to St. Maurice 
reached by the species. As previously noted, malrae occurs on the hill- 
side at Lavey-les-Bains; so that in actual distance there is only some 
nine kilometres between the two species at this point. 
With regard to the general distribution of these species in Switzer- 
Jand, it is interesting to note the following. The areas inhabited by 
both are sharply divided by a natural barrier. The great chain of the Alps, 
of the Bernese Oberland, Uri, and Glarus, which run across the country 
in a more or less straight line, from the N.E. to the S.W., divide the 
two species. Although both occur in the mountains they do not seem 
able to rise to a greater elevation than 6,000 ft. I have seen instances 
of this with both species. In the Grisons, at Lenzerheide, malvoides 
occurred all through the neighbourhood, between 4,800 ft. and 5,600 
ft., in great numbers, and more rarely up to about 6,000 ft., but above 
this it failed to appear. Similarly, in the Bernese Oberland, at Kan- 
derstee, malvae, though very common, never occurred much, 1f at all, 
over 5,300 ft. In the Vaud I have taken it at a slightly higher level, 
but never quite up to 6,000 ft. Consequently along this range of 
mountains, bordering the valleys of the Rhone and upper Rhine, we find 
malvae on the northern slopes, and malvoides on the southern. How 
malvae surmounted this barrier and got down to the southern Grisons, 
where a single specimen was taken, it would be hard to say; for 
although it has turned the north-western corner at St. Maurice, it 
apparently is not inclined to extend along the flat of the valley. 
Malvoides appears early in May in the Rbone Valley, but seldom 
lasts more than three or four weeks. It is double-brooded in most 
