22 



BRITISH BUTTEEFLIKS. 



Eur. Cat.," p. 14 (1851); Staud., "Cat.,' 1st ed., p. 6{18U); Staud., "Cat.," 

 2nd ed., p. 12 (1871); Kiihl, "Pal. Gross-Schmett.," p. 278 (1893); Tutt, 

 "Brit. Butts.," p. 166 (1896); Staud., "Cat.," iitd cd., p. 86 (1901); Stef., 

 "Bull. Soc. Ent. It.," xxxii., p. 339 (1901); Spulcr, " Schmett. Eur.," 

 3rd ed., i., p. 66 (1902); Lamb., "Pap. Bel-.," p. 239 (1902); Bartel, 

 "Ent. Zeits. Guben," xviii., p. 117 (1904); Leonh., "Ins. Borse," xxii., 

 p. 124 (1905); Verity, "Bull. Soc. Ent. Ital.," xxxviii., p. 28 (1906); Seitz, 

 " Gross-Schmett.," i., p. 315 (1909); Kebel, "Berge's Schmett.," 9th ed., p. 72 

 (1909). Apenninus, Kirby, " Syn. Cat.," p. 368 (1871). Appenina, Lang, "Butts. 

 Eur.," p. 122 (1884); Kane, " Eur. Butts.," p. 45 (1885). Hispana, Tutt, " Brit. 

 Butts.," p. 167 (1896); Grover, " Ent. Kec," ix., p. 312 (1897); Wheeler, " Butts. 

 Switz.," p. 31 (1903). Corydon ab., ? Mosl., "Nat. Journ.," v., suppl., p. 10, 

 pi. iv., fig. 5 (1896); Hodgson, " Proc. Sth. Lond. Ent. Soc," p. 87 (1906). 

 Limbomaculata, Schultz, " Jahresb. Wien. Ent. Ver.," xvi., p. 76 (1906). — Var. 

 apennina ; alarum marginibus angustis cinerascentibus, alis subtus dilutissimis. 

 1 only saw two J s on September 15th, b3hind Fuligno, in the Apennines, where 

 they flew higher than adonis on the calcareous rocks, and settled on white-felted 

 Labiatae. They looked very different from ordinary corydon, but were recognised 

 as such by the extensive pubescence on the wings. They are among the smallest 

 specimens. The silvery-blue of the giound colour is of a whiter tint in one than 

 in the other. The nervures of the uppersidc are, in both, blackish for a short 

 distance. The outer margin of the forewing is grey rather than blackish, much 

 narrower than usual, and contains a row of whitish obsolete interneural spots 

 on the hindwings, the grey shade is wanting on the inner side of the row 

 of spots which are bordered outwardly with white between the nervures. 

 Only very slender grey streaks run from the nervures into the pure white 

 fringes. The ground colour of the underside is much mixed with white, 

 that of the forewings appearing whitish and of the hindwings whitish-brown. The 

 spots are small and obsolete, and their white margins scarcely visible ; the reddish- 

 yellow of the marginal chevrons is faint and pale. The fringes have slender grey 

 longitudinal dashes. I suspect that this is the variety of corydon ol which Graslin 

 (Ann. Soc. Ent. France, v., p. 555) remarks: " Dorylas and corydon have then- 

 colours strangely affected by climate, in the high hills near Granada, the great 

 heat making them almost white, while, on the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, where 

 they experience a moderate temperature, their colour remains unaltered." But it 

 seems to me that it is rather the effect of a calcareous soil, for the place where I 

 found corydon in the Apennines was very fairly high (Zeller). 



Zeller's two types described above are in the British Museum coll., 

 and carry his labels, "Fuligno, 5. ix. 44, Z., 'Is.,' 1847, 148," one 

 example somewhat broken. Both are 38mm. in expanse. 

 They are almost typical silvery - blue # s, but have rather pale margins 

 to the forewings, the margins broken up into white-edged, grey- 

 centred spots, whilst the marginal spots of the hind wing are white- 

 edged, black-centred ones, the margin being rather more complete. 

 Two $ s labelled " Greece, Merlin coll.," are very similar, as also is 

 one from " Eiva, 2000ft., 30. vii. '92 (Elwes)."' The types are of 

 fair average size — 38 mm. — and very similar to examples that may be 

 taken every year in Britain. Scefanelli speaks {Bull. F.nt. Soc. 

 It., xxxii., pp. 839-40) of it as replacing the type at BoscolungO, and 

 perhaps throughout the heights of the Tuscan Apennines, whilst Verity 

 says (Bull. /•-'///. Soc. Ital., xxxviii., p. 28) that this form is pretty 

 frequent at the end of August and in September, especially on the bills 

 that crown the Consuma Pass in the 1 Vallombrosa. But the ab. apennina, 

 as represented by Zeller's types, is not the normal form of t he Apennines, 

 which is practically the same as those of Britain, France, or 

 Switzerland, e.g., Wheeler notes (in lilt.) thai his A. coridon from Assisi, 

 taken, however, at no great altitude, are practically indistinguishable 

 from those captured at Guildford in Surrey, though slightly bluer in 

 tint, and adds that the only specimen he has corresponding with 

 Zeller's types, came from EDclepens. The fact must be added that, 



