72 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



in the $ there is only a line of that colour. To be sure we obtained 

 also some aberrations where the yellow was more or less dusted with 

 brown, but the yellow ground colour always shone through distinctly, 

 and on the underside it was likewise present in the form of a 

 band. The $ has almost the colour of Pachygastria medicaginis. On 

 the forewings the paler lines and the white spot stand as in the $ ; on 

 the hindwings the inner area is ruddle-red ; the outer, before the line, 

 red-yellow. The underside of both sexes corresponds with the upper- in 

 the differences mentioned." Bellier de la Chavignerie appears to main- 

 tain sicula (under the name of spartii) as a species on account of the 

 $ having the antennal shaft brown, whilst, he says, it is washed with 

 yellow at the extremity of that of L. querciis and its different varieties. 

 Mina-Palumbo and Failla-Tedaldi state {Nat. Sic., vii., p. 331) that 

 they are unable to recognise the difference in specimens in their 

 possession, and that they think it an insufficient character on which 

 to found a species. 



fx. var. subalpina, Agassiz, "Mitt. Schw. Gesell.," x., p. 248 (1900). — Agassiz 

 simply notes, " Swiss Jura," without description. 



v. var. alpina, Frev, "Lep. der Schweiz," p. 97 (1880"); Hoffmn., " Stett. Ent. 

 Zeit," xlix., p. 153 (1888); liv., p. 125 (1893); Kirby, '" Cat.," p. 828 (1892); 

 Auriv., " Iris," vii., p. T50 (1894) ; Reutti, "Lep. Bad., "'p. 58 (1898) ; Favre, "Lep. 

 Val ," p. in (1899) ; Staud., " Cat.," 3rd ed., p. 120 (1901). — In the higher moun- 

 tains at Zermatt, Gadmen, and in the Upper Engadine. from 6000 to 7000 feet, occurs a 

 very inteiesting vaiiety, dark in both sexes, which, in these high altitudes, emerges 

 from pupa? that go over the winter. In this alpine form the s is deeper brown, 

 the broad transverse band paler, the fringes ol the hindwings pale; the ? ccmes 

 nearest to var. callunae. It is found on the Stelvio, at Zermatt, in the Upper Engadine, 

 on the high Alps around Gadmenthal, and Sardasca in the Grisons (Frey) ; Brenner 

 dist— Navis, July 17th, 1899 (Galvagni) ; Upper Hartz (Hoffmann) ; nr. Herren- 

 wics (Spuler) ; Valais — Glacier de Trient, Loeche-les-Bains, Riffelalp, Simplon, 

 &c. (Favre); Finland -Kuusamo (Hoffman). 



Hoffmann says (S. E. Z.. xlix., p. 153): "The var. alpina, Frey, 

 flies in the Upper Hartz at the end of May and throughout June ; the 

 larva emerges from the egg at the beginning of July, but does not grow 

 much the same year, hybernating small, and, in June of the next year, 

 one may still find them gregariously on Vaccinium and Calluna, 

 although later they separate. By the end of July they are full- 

 grown, and at the beginning of August pupation takes place ; these 

 pupae hybernate, the moth appearing in the spring of the next 

 year, so that one finds together quite small larvae and fullgrown 

 ones from the moths of the previous year. The same peculiarities 

 are observed in the high Alps of Switzerland, and it forms a transi- 

 tion between the lowland form and var. callunae? He also states 

 (loc. cit.. liv., p. 125) that he collected at Kuusamo, in North Finland 

 in 1892, fullgrown larvae in the middle of August, on Vaccinium and 

 Calluna, which, in the spring of 1893, produced the mountain form, 

 var. alpina, Frey. Favre notes (Lep. Val., p. in) the male as 

 " dark brown, with the band wider, paler, and the fringes of 

 the hindwings lighter than in the type : the $ very near 

 callunae. Hybernates in the pupal stage under rocks and stones; 

 very rare in the alpine region of the Valais.'' Caradja observes 

 of the Roumanian que reus, that the males form a transition 

 from var. alpina, Frr. to var. roboris, Schrk., having deep, dark 

 chocolate-brown (not red-brown) ground colour, and extraordinarily 

 broad, orange-yellow bands; Hormuzaki obtained a similar male in 

 the mountains of Bucovina. 



