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BUTTERFLIES OF MESOPOTAMIA. 51 
Beyond the border to the North and North East are steep limestone mountain 
ranges rising from about 2,000 feet, as at Paitak at the foot of the Takigerra 
pass in Persia, where in August the satyr—S. parisatis—settles in scores in the 
water-worn holes of the limestone cliff, up to plateaux at 5,000 and 6,000 feet, 
such as the Kerind Valley, with peaks of 8,000 feet on either side, or 11,000 feet 
as near Kermanshah. At four to five thousand feet stunted and other 
hill-oaks are found ; and one may come across the silk cocoons of some large 
moth, related to the ‘moon moth’, attached at about 5 feet from the ground to 
some thorny bush, about which the crimson and yellow leaves of autumn produce 
a wonderful effect against the grey-blue of the limestone rocks and boulders 
of the hill side. Near the streams in the gorges and beautiful clefts 
through the ranges are walnut, mulberry and other fruit trees, the haunt of 
the magnificent fritillary, A. maia, and of the familiar Purple Hair-streak 
(Zephyrus quercus) of England. In the glades many richly coloured blues are 
found, such as Lycana dama, and C. thersamon, the latter a tailed copper, shot 
with purple. 
Humidity.—This in the lower or alluvial region is fairly high from November 
to April, and low from June to September, when in the undulating uplands it 
is very low. 
Temperature.—In both regions January is usually the coldest month, and 
there are frosts at night in the winter. Rarely, as in four days in February of 
1920, when the rain was late, there is snow. The mean daily temperature varies 
from about 40° F. in the cold season to about 90° in the Summer. The maximum 
reaches to over 130° in the shade in July in the alluvial region and to 120° or 
more in the higher region in August. 
These conditions would account for so called ‘Wet’ season forms in Feb- 
. ruary and October, and extreme Dry forms met with in June in the uplands 
whereas in the highlands beyond a comparatively ‘Wet’ season form is still 
to be found in July, as instanced by the bath white (daplidice) one of the com- 
monest forms in some parts of Mesopotamia. 
The butterfly species of Mesopotamia are comparatively few. In the alluvial 
region such as at Amara they probably do not exceed a dozen in number. But 
on the uplands of undulating plateaux and ‘“‘Jebels,”’ as the low hill ridges 
are called, and on the foothills, some 40 forms occur to my own knowledge. 
On these uplands the earliest broods appear towards the end of January, but 
cold may delay them a month or more, as in 1920; and in the Spring, especially 
early in May, with the wonderful profusion of flowers there is a corresponding 
abundance of butterflies, that is of indviduals of some half dozen or so species, P. 
machaon, Colias croceus (= edusa) Synchle belemia, etc., being there seen in 
astonishing numbers. But in June the numbers rapidly diminish here, as the 
heat asserts itself, whereas in the highlands in July the abundance of 
lepidoptera is again amazing. The satyrs, Epinephele jurtina and EH. lupinus, 
for instance, rise up in fluttering clouds accompanied by numbers of the 
gorgeous “Jersey Tiger’? Callimorpha quadripunctata {= hera), as one 
moves about beneath the trees. In October some new broods appear, but 
not in such numbers as in the Spring. A few, such as the small cabbage 
white (rape), bath white (daplidice) and clouded yellow (crocea = edusa), 
continue almost throughout the year. 
In character the butterfly fauna of Mesopotamia, like the flora, which of 
course largely determines it, is much more English than that of the fauna of 
say, the South of France, and the fact that a large proportion of the forms are 
either the same as or nearly akin to English species at once strikes the collector; 
machaon, for instance, is the only Papilio found below the highlands ; and other 
examples of English forms are rape, daplidice, croceus ( = edusa), pamphilus 
and atalanta ; besides the more widespread brown argus (astrarche), megera. 
