NOTES ON AGRIADES CORIDON, PODA AND A. ARAGONENSIS, VERITY. 



243 



I wished in fact, to see the two species flying together and to 

 distinguish them on the wing. 



In 1916 I could not count on the able co-operation of my wife and 

 daughter because they went in May to the Isle of Elba and remained 

 there till the end of September. The excursion to Mount Fanna, 

 where Dr. Verity found the two species together, is very fatiguing, so I 

 thought I could carry out my intention by going in August to collect 

 in the Plan di Mugnone, which is just under Mount Fanna from which 

 it is distant, as the bee flies, not more than three kilometres, with a 

 difference of level of about 500 metres. According to the data of 

 Dr. Verity concerning the time of appearance, I ought to have found 

 also in the Pian di Mugnone, on the first days of August, A. coridon 

 and afterwards A. aragonensis. 



On August 6th, 1916, I went accordingly to Pian di Mugnone, 

 persuaded that I should find A. coridon in complete emergence, but a 

 delusion awaited me because both on that and the following days I 

 only captured A. aragonensis. On August 18th, the coppice, where the 

 species usually flies, was destroyed by a fire, and being tired and weak 

 in health, I had to interrupt my researches and to go to my family in 

 the Isle of Elba to recruit. 



This failure only increased my desire to succeed, and to accomplish 

 a work of some scientific interest, we undertook in 1917 the entomo- 

 logical exploration of the Mount Fanna, in comparison with that of 

 Pian di Mugnone which, notwithstanding the fire of the year before, 

 promised well. 



The males of A. aragonensis emerged this year on the Pian di 

 Mugnone on May 25th, whilst the year before, in much more 

 favourable climatic condition, they had appeared on the 12th of the 

 same month. The females, which the preceding year had appeared 

 on May 21st, were delayed till the 31st of the same month. 



To make it clearer I have summarised as follows the data concern- 

 ing the emergence of A. coiidon and A. aragonensis in all the localities 

 systematically explored by us. 



At the end of the month of June, 1917, as the continual ascents 

 of Mount Fanna had a good deal fatigued my young daughter she went 

 with her mother to the mountains of the Komagna where the entomo- 

 logical hunts are easier than on the Fanna. Thus I remained alone 

 at Florence and I decided to continue the comparative researches on 

 the Fanna and Pian di Mugnone. 



On Mount Fanna I captured the first males and the first females 

 of A. coridon on July 29th, 1917, whilst at Mugnone valley the second 

 generation of A. aragonensis emerged only on the 6th of August and a 

 female on the 7th of the same month. In the first decade of August 

 A. coridon was abundant on the Fanna. From the 18th of August till 

 the 16th of September the A. aragonensis emerged in great quantities 

 in the Mugnone valley. 



The differences of the two species were evident in the living butter- 

 flies. The summer form of A. aragonensis of the Mugnone seen in 

 flight seems quite like a white butterfly, and I have often found one in 

 my net when I thought I had taken a Leptosia sinapis. When at rest 

 on the stems it has instead a dark appearance ; it seems identical with 

 A. thetis, Rott., with which it is mixed. It is impossible to distinguish 

 a male of the summer A. aragonensis from a male of the summer A. 



