THE SMALL MOUNTAIN RINGLET. Ill 



years it has been observed at Sledmere, and near Scarborough 

 and Helmsley. It is also reported to be not uncommon in three 

 localities not far from York. 



The butterflies usually affect broken ground, rough fields, 

 grassy slopes near woods, or even sunny banks on the edges 

 of cornfields. Occasionally an odd specimen or two may be 

 met with here and there, but as a rule they seem to keep pretty 

 much together, so that when one comes upon a colony of these 

 butterflies, the selection of a series on the spot is quite an easy 

 matter, and can be effected without destroying a single specimen 

 over and above the required number. 



Abroad, this species is abundant in Central and Southern 

 Europe, and its range extends to Northern Asia Minor and 

 Armenia. 



The Small Mountain Ringlet (Ercbia epiphron). 



The typical form of this butterfly, epiphron, Knock, has the 

 tawny bands unbroken on the fore wings, and almost so on the 

 hind wings ; the black dots on the hind wings of the female are 

 often pupilled with white, and more rarely this is so in the' 

 male also. It has been stated that specimens occur in Perth- 

 shire which exhibit these characters. All the British examples 

 of the Small Mountain Ringlet that I have seen are referable 

 to the form known as cassiope, Fab. (Plate 77). The tawny, 

 or orange, bands are rarely so entire on the fore wings as in 

 epiphron, and are generally rather narrower ; and that on the 

 hind wing is broken up into three or four rings. The black 

 dots are usually smaller and without white pupils. The female 

 is somewhat larger and the bands or rings paler. 



Variation in the markings is extensive. The bands on the 

 fore wings become less and less complete, until they are reduced 

 to a series of mere rings around the black dots. The black dots 

 decrease in size and in number until they, together with the 



