356 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



Throughout its range it is local and sporadic, often only occurring 

 singly, though occasionally abundant even in districts where at other 

 times it is not observed' 1 ' (though this does not necessarily imply 

 absence) ; thus, in France, where it is widely distributed, it is reported 

 to be absent from Normandy (Dupont), and the name does not occur 

 in by any means all the existing departmental lists ; in Holland it is 

 contiued to Gelderland, and apparently to one place in that province ; 

 in Spain it seems to be restricted to the northern half of the central 

 table-land ; in Italy, except in the Alpine regions, it is only reported from 

 the Central Apennines, except in Tuscany and de Selys Longchamps' 

 single record from the foot of Mount Vesuvius ; in Turkey it has been 

 found only near Therapia, in Greece only on Mt. Parnassus, and 

 whilst occurring in most of the existing lists of the central and 

 southern Governments of Russia, it is absent from Melioransky's list 

 of the Crimea and Kroulikowsky's of the Government of Jaroslav. In 

 Germany it is stated by Speiser to be everywhere, except in a few 

 regions of the northern plain, in more or less abundance, but in the 

 very full list of German records supplied to us by Gillmer we find much 

 to the contrary ; for instance, in Mecklenburg, where seven localities 

 are cited, in one of which it is " very rare," we find : — " not observed 

 at Wismar, not at Gadesbuch (Schmidt); not at Friedland (Stange)' 

 not observed at Lubeck (Tessmann)." The different accounts of its 

 abundance or otherwise given by different observers in the same 

 locality points to the same uncertainty of appearance as it displays 

 with us, which is more directly exemplified by the observations of 

 Laplace as to the appearance of the species in the Sachsenwald (see 

 infra, p. 359). It seems also liable to disappear, to some extent, from 

 localities where it was formerly abundant ; thus Hering reports it as 

 " abundant " in Pomerania when writing in 1840, but a lapse of 40 

 years causes him to modify this opinion considerably, for in 1881 he 

 speaks of it as " widely distributed but rare." In Switzerland it is 

 to be taken almost everywhere, but it is very unusual to see more than 

 one or two at a time, except in a few mountain valleys, such as the 

 Leventina, where it may occasionally be seen in fair abundance. In 

 Asia its distribution is wide, but so vast a portion of its area is quite, 

 or almost, unexplored, that it is impossible to draw conclusions from 

 the meagre records at our disposal. The specimens, however, sent 

 from any given locality are so few that it would seem likely that its 

 occurrence is as sporadic as in Europe. It is reported (once) from 

 the north of Asia Minor, and the north of Persia, occurs throughout 

 Turkestan and in the few explored portions of Thibet, in the Thian- 

 Shan range, the Ala Tau, Tarbagatai and Altai mountains, but does 

 not, so far as known, touch the Himalayas. In all this part of Central 

 Asia it seems to be a mountain species, but further north this ceases 

 to be the case and it occurs round the Lake Baikal, in various parts 

 of the steppes in, and to the west of Irkutsk, as far north as 

 Pokrofka, and in the valley of the Ussuri, where it assumes very 

 large proportions, and finally in the Island of Askold. The 

 following list of localities contains, we believe, most of its recorded 



* This is in marked contrast with the hahits of other "blues," and implies 

 that there must be something in the habits of the larva to account for it ; I have 

 attempted to throw some light on the matter above, pp. 831-333 (G.W.) 



