316 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



punctifera shining light blue examples with weak black marking, in which the 

 black border of the forewings is narrow, and on the hindwings appears only as a 

 black bordering line, inside which are black spots in undefined white circles. On 

 the forewings also are black marginal spots ; here, however, they are mostly 

 obsolete, or partially melt into the border (Grund). 

 Loc. Podsused, not scarce, environs of Lipik. 



No mention being made of the underside, it may be presumed that 

 it does not differ materially from the type, and is therefore distinct 

 from var. laranda ; the weak black marking also differentiates this 

 form from var. ligurica. 



Mountain Forms. 



The mountain forms are distinguished by their dark colouring due 

 to an enlargement of the black border, often extending to the centre of 

 the wings, and in extreme cases almost to the base. These dark 

 forms, though characteristic of the mountains, are not confined to 

 high levels, and, on the other hand, quite light forms, even the pale 

 var. ligurica, may be found in mountain localities. 



(a) var. obscura, Christ., " Frey's Lep. Schweitz," p. 22 (1880); Lang, 

 " Butts. Eur.," p. 134 (1884) ; Kane, " Eur. Butts.," p. 52 (1885) ; Kill., " Beitr. 

 Ins. Graiib.," p. 6 (1886) ; Buhl, " Pal. Gr.-Schmett.," pp. 308 (1893), 769 (1895) ; 

 Tutt., " Brit. Butts.," p. 157 (1896); Favre, " Macr. Lep. Val.," p. 25 (1899); 

 Staud., "Cat.," 3rd ed., p. 90(1901); Spul., " Schmett. Eur.," p. 69 (1902); 

 Lamb., " Pap. Belg.," p. 253 (1902) ; Wheel., "Butts. Switz." etc., p. 22 (1903) ; 

 Rebel, " Berges Schmett.," 9th ed., p. 76(1909); Seitz, " Gr.-Schmett.," p. 321, 

 pi. lxxxiii., c (1910) ; Courv., " Ent. Zeits.," xxiv., p. 202 (1910) ; Obth., " Lep. 

 Comp.," iv., p. 326 (1910). Caucasica, Elwes, "Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.," p. 329 

 (1899). Arion, ab., Meisn. " Natur. Anz.," i., p. 86 (1818); Zell., " Stett. Ent. 

 Zeit.," xxxiv., p. 295 (1872). — In the Alps and indeed at a moderate elevation, 

 smaller specimens are met with, with the wings more and more darkened with 

 blackish ; these form the variety obscura, Christ, which is met with from Zermatt 

 to the Stelvio. A similar dark specimen was received exceptionally from the 

 Liestal by Dr. Christ (Frey). 



Typical obscura are here specially noted as being smaller than the 

 type, but it must be remembered that Swiss specimens are often large, 

 and that Frey had just been. mentioning " the particularly large and 

 fine specimens found in the Leventina." It may also be observed that 

 in the Brit. Mus. Coll. are specimens of obscura from the Frey coll., 

 and many of Zeller's specimens from Bergiin, well up to the average 

 size of British arion. On the other hand, the earlier records of these 

 dark specimens, both Meisner's as early as 1818, and Zeller's as late as 

 1872, refer to their small size. Meisner observes : — On the Alps one 

 frequently finds a far smaller aberration, in which the ? , especially, 

 is, on the upperside, almost black, and only slightly powdered with 

 blue." Zeller, again, writes as follows : — Not very numerous [at 

 Bergiin] on open mountain meadows in the first half of July. I never 

 took it to be L. arion, and as I did not want to take bad specimens 

 away with me, I consequently only have a male before me, which I 

 only now recognise as belonging to arion. It is like the rest of the 

 specimens which I saw there, much smaller than our arion, the ground 

 colour of the upperside of the wings is black, and penetrates everywhere 

 through the faint light bluish dusting except at the base, so that the 

 blue is considerably toned down. The black spots of the front wings 

 are of the ordinary number, but small and, since here the blue dusting 

 is very faint, only slightly distinguishable. The black hind margin 

 also differs much and is hardly recognisable as the marginal line of the 



