— 42 



oak: at the close of 1903, which was M'et and dis- 

 asterous to the crops, while the Martimas summer 

 lasted beveys of Painted Lady Butterflies were to 

 be seen at noon sipping on the heads of the Michael- 

 mas daisies all over the south of England. 



Flights of Painted Lady Butterflies have been 

 noticed all over Europe about the time of most and 

 fewest sun spots and the year has usually been a wet 

 and gloom j^ one on the Atlantic coast. In 1751 

 they commenced to be noticed and in 1798 there was 

 one near Turin. Then what appears correct. In 

 the beginning of June 1828 Madame de Meuran Wolf 

 and her family established during the summer at 

 Grandson on the Lake of Neufchatel observed with 

 surprise an immense flight of butterflies traversing 

 the garden with great rapidity. They were of the 

 species known as the Belle Dame by the French and 

 by the London collectors as the Painted Lady. They 

 continued to pass for two hours, flying north, with- 

 out interruption in a column from ten to fifteen 

 feet broad. Professor Bonelli mentioned he had 

 noticed a similar flight at Turin at the close of 

 march and Prévost the previous October had seen a 

 flock going north in France. After sunrise in the 

 early part of the summer of 1842 a flock of Painted 

 Ladies set out from the harbour on the Island of 

 Corfu in the direction of the coast of Italy, the wind 

 was then blowing fresh from the south-east and they 

 resembled black, drifting snow: on the 26th of april 

 1851 Ghihani witnessed a migration of Painted 

 Ladies on the Riviera between Cuneo and Spezia, 

 clouds of these butterflies were seen at Odessa in 

 1860; the previous June their caterpillars filled the 

 streets, yards and gardens, of Krjukow on the Dnei- 

 per. Some staticians said we ought te revert to 1816 

 to find a wet season comparable to that of 1879, 

 and others could only compare it with 1764; but 

 1860 which was still fresh in memory suggested 

 itself to the farmers. Supposed to come from Africa 

 and to all appearance disgorging from the Rhone 

 valley a f ught of Painted Lady Butterflies traversed 

 Switzerland at the commencement of June the 

 whole population turning out to watch their fluttering 

 progress. On the 7th they passed by Gatten and Gos- 

 sen and a day later according to the newspapers 

 they were seen at Zurich: the procession then came 

 up the valley of the Rhine to Karlsruhe. An other 

 swarm coming down the Loire arrived at the town 

 of Angers where those who jjassed along the streets 

 were compelled to take refuge against the walls; 

 while a mingled troop of Painted Ladies and gamma 

 moths was seen passing Tours. It is said a detach- 

 ment came to Sevres near Paris. The prevaling 

 winds during this migration were south and westerly. 

 In the year 1100 a flock of insects whose wings re- 

 sembled tents, supposed to be butterflies, for three 

 days were seen to pass from Saxony to Bavaria; 

 not unlikely these were cardui. 



The Painted Lad3' that hybernates in the south 

 of England is called forth by the sunshine of may 

 to take its delight on the grass plots where the 

 shadow flickers under the wayside oaks ; this year 1912, 

 on the 20th of may they were to be seen at their 



accustomed meditations at the side of the road that 

 leads to Romsey; but on the 22nd of may 1906, 

 snow flakes were falling in Devonshire and the day 

 following sleet and rain fell ; : it was so cold that 

 fires were relit in the sittingrooms. This must have 

 been unendurable to Painted Ladies, many flew 

 south at Totnes and hundreds were seen by Mr. 

 H. D. Keyon at the close of the month congregated 

 on the cliffs at St. Austell, Cornwall. 



It will be recalled that 1734, 1750, 1798, 1810, 

 1833, 1843, 1855, 1867 and 1878 were pronounced 

 by Professor Rudolf Wolf to be years when the sun 

 was least spotted; and 1816, 1829, 1837, 1848, 1860, 

 1883 and 1905, were those in which most sun spots 

 were seen: with these dates the migrations and ap- 

 pearance of the moth and the butterflies seen the olo- 

 verfields sufficiently agree, it might cause a dis-, 

 ciple of Zoroaster to adore the disk of the sun. 



57. 89 Parnassius (4) 



Ueber einige wenig bekannte Formen 

 von Parn. Apollo L. 



Von Dr. Arnold Pagenstecher (Wiesbaden). 



Mit 2 Abbildungen. 



Parnassius Apollo asturiensis Pagenst. (Fig. l^J — 2$). 

 Unter dieser Bezeichnung hatte ich in meiner 

 Arbeit über die Verbreitungsbezirke und Lokalformen 

 von Parn. Apollo L. (Jahrb. Nass. Ver. f. Naturkunde 

 Bd. 62 1909, S. 207) eine Lokalform aufgestellt, 

 welche in den Sammlungen nur wenig vertreten sein 

 dürfte. In der Literatur finde ich nur eine gaiiz kurze 

 Notiz von Walter (Sitzungsb. Berl. Ent. Ver.' 

 Jahrg. 1909 in B. E. Zeitschr. Bd. 44 1910, S. 46) über 

 einen in Asturien (1600 — 1800 m) angetroffenen 

 P. Apollo L. — Turati führt P. asturiensis Pag. 

 mit einem ? auf. Die mir zur Begründung meiner 

 Aufstellung vorliegenden drei Exemplare meiner 

 Sammlung (2 ^^ 1 Ç) erzog ich aus Puppen, die ich 

 1909 von Herrn A. Kricheldorff als aus 

 Asturien stammend erhalten hatte. Nach Mittei- 

 lungen, die Herr Wichgraf in Berlin bei Kri- 

 cheldorff einzuziehen die Güte hatte, gingen 

 Exemplare der Sammlung an Herrn Bartels 

 über. Dieser teilte mir auf Befragen mit, daß die 

 betreffenden Exemplare leider nach Rußland bereits 

 verkauft seien. Nach Herrn Kricheldorffs 

 Angaben waren die Exemplare ziemlich identisch 

 gewesen mit den in Steiermark vorkommenden For- 

 men von P. Apollo, kleiner als die schlesischen, die ÇÇ 

 dunkel, mit sehr roten Augen und drei roten Flecken 

 in der Apicalgegend. Dies stimmt mit den mir vor- 

 liegenden Exemplaren, die sich von den sonstigen in 

 Spanien vorkommenden Formen unterscheiden, so 

 von den bei b e r t h u r (Et. d'Entom. XIV, p. 5, 6 ; 

 Pagenstecher, Jahrb. N. V. f. Nat. Jahrg. 62, 

 S. 20) angeführte var. „nevadensis", wie auch den v. es- 

 calerae Rothschild (Nov. zool. XVI, p. 9; Pagen- 

 stecher, 1. c. 207) von S. Ildefonso und anderen, über 

 welche man die übersichtliche Darstellung bei C. R i b b e 

 (Deutsche Ent. Zeitschr. Iris Bd. XXIII, 2. Beiheft 



