PLEBEIUS ARGUS. 241 



pass (Tutt); whilst, in Carniola, it is also reported as occurring on the 

 grassy sides of the mountain valleys (Mann). In France, we have 

 found the species in a variety of habitats. It swarms on the heaths of 

 Fontainebleau Forest, acres of ling growing in the open spaces with 

 breaks of timber between. Far different are its habitats along the 

 foothills at Gresy-sur-Aix, where it haunts the edges of the lucerne 

 meadows, often trespassing into the adjacent vineyards, whilst a 

 favourite haunt, almost on the top of the hills, above the woods, is a 

 famous butterfly-corner,. a small stretch of grass, with some bushy 

 plants of lucerne, and here and there a walnut-tree, where, in August, 

 it flies among Ayriades coridon, A. bellargus, Polyommatus hylas, 

 P. icarus, Aricia astrarche, Everes aryiades, Cyaniris semiargas, and a 

 host of larger species ; very similar is its habitat at Bourg St. 

 Maurice," where it swarms in the corner of a meadow where 

 scattered bushes of lucerne grow under the tall hedge that skirts it, 

 whilst the hum of the Torrent des Glaciers comes up the slopes that 

 steeply fall thereto. Very different is the wide wild stretch of stony 

 waste, on which the insect abounds between St. Michel-de-Maurienne 

 and Valloire, and the hard stony slopes, covered with Onobrychis sativa, 

 where it occurs high up above Larche with Erebia styyne and E. scipio. 

 In Eure, it occurs in a large field on the hills of Deux-Amants 

 (Dupont), and in Brittany, Oberthiir says that it is widely distributed 

 in the "landes," in the pastures, in wood-ridings, and is sometimes 

 abundant on the sea-shore, e.g., at the Pointe du Raz, whilst, at the 

 other extremity of France, in Var, it is common on the marshes at 

 Hyeres, in the Gapeau Valley, and by the edge of the marshes at Ceinturon, 

 where a second-brood flies towards the end of August with swarms of 

 Haywardla telicanus and Polyommatus icarus, whilst, in the Alpes- 

 Maritimes, it frequents the warm valleys at various elevations, being- 

 abundant at least up to 1800 metres, at which height it is plentiful 

 in the meadows above Colmars, and Beauvezer. In the Pyrenees it is 

 exceedingly abundant, occurring up to an elevation of 6000ft., in June, 

 but appearing to be limited to no especial kind of habitat ; Chapman 

 notes it as reaching an elevation of at least 2000ft. in almost every 

 direction above Gavarnie. In Corsica, Powell says, the species occurs 

 on rough pasture-land with short grass, dwarf juniper-bushes, low- 

 growing thistles with large flowers, etc. ; this species is found, strangely, 

 in the Island, at only a few metres below the summits of the higher 

 cols, diminishing in numbers down to the level of the forest-trees, and 

 disappearing almost altogether below this, the allied Plebeius aryyroy- 

 nomori taking its place as one descends. In Spain, this species excels 

 in size and beauty. It was noticed by Rambur as being common in 

 the mountains about Granada, and has since been taken in abundance 

 in widely different localities, and almost everywhere as highly special- 

 ised local forms. In the west, at Bejar, it haunts a fiat grassy, heathy 

 stretch of ground, moist in places, and probably distinctly boggy in 

 the wet season ; in the north-west, it occurs commonly in Galicia, at 

 Vigo right down to sea-level, at Casayo on an open hillside facing- 

 north-west, with steep and rocky slopes, covered with heath, Cistus, 

 Cytisus, often with patches of scrub-oak, and in one of two places 

 moister wooded slopes, and, at Branuelas, on high flat heath and open 

 bog ; in the Albarracin district, it is found in the country about Tragacete 

 and Cuenca, which is very hilly and varied, whilst at La Granja, well 



