THE YOUNG NATUKALlST. 



167 



I A genus of dark colored butterflies inhabit- 

 ing mountainous districts, and including 

 ■some sixty species, of which about half are 

 ■European. Two only occur in Britain. Many 

 ■of the species have a very close resemblance 

 :o each other, and some of them vary greatly, 

 rendering their discrimination very difficult. 



EPIPHRON, Kn. ) , 

 CASSIOPE, Fab. | PL *3, Fig. 3. 



The Mountain Ringlet. 



"Cassiopi;, F., Cassiope, the mother of 

 Andromeda. Proper. I, 17.3." — A.L. 



Imago.— PI. 13, fig. 3. Dark brown, 

 with a fulvous band on all wings, on which 

 are a row of small spots, sometimes with 

 white centres. 



Larva. — Very little known. The only 

 description I have seen is by Mr Wailes, of ' 

 Newcastle. He says, "Pale green, with ! 

 numerous darker green longitudinal lines 

 shading into the ground color, and with a 

 well defined white line along each side in the 

 region of the spiracles. " Transactions of 

 the Tyneside Naturalists Field Club. Vol 

 III, p. 201. Note. 



Pood Plants-— "The larvae fed upon 

 Pua annua, and Festuca ovina, though I 

 suspect in a state of nature, they live on the 

 young leaves of Nanlits stricta, or some of the 

 smaller Junci, which constitute the principal 

 herbage of the mountain sides where the 

 insect is met with." — G. Wailes. 



Times of Appearance.— The butter- 

 fly appears about the middle of June, and 

 continues on the wing till the end of July. 

 The larvae are doubtless of the same habit as 

 those of Medea, hybernating quite small, and j 

 feeding up in the spring. 



Habitat. — In England this species is 

 entirely confined to the Lake district, where 

 * it occurs in several places. In Scotland 

 several localities are known, but only one in 

 Ireland — Criagh Patrick, near Westport. It 

 is a truly alpine species, occurring far up the 

 mountain sides. On the Continent one or 

 other form of this Butterfly is found on 



several of the Alpine ranges, but it does not 

 occur beyond Europe. 



Variation.— I feel considerable hesita- 

 tion in speaking of the varieties of this insect. 

 The English form was formerly known as 

 Cassiope, the distinguishing mark of which is 

 the absence of white pupils to the black spots. 

 When the insect was first taken in Scotland 

 it was announced by Mr Newman as E. 

 melampus, but this was soon found to be a 

 mistake, and the insect was then declared to 

 be the Epiphron of Knoch. Epiphron is sup- 

 to be the distinguished from Cassiope by the 

 black spots having white centres, but the 

 Scotch specimens are as often without them as 

 with these white centres, which according to 

 Staudinger are found in the female. The 

 two forms occurring in Britain may be easily 

 distinguished. The Scotch specimens are 

 larger than the English, and darker in color. 

 The fulvous marks are not so much of a 

 band, but would be better described as a 

 series of fulvous spots, divided by the wing 

 rays, and having black middles, sometimes 

 with white centres. Sometimes, however, 

 these marks do form a band, while Fnglish 

 specimens occasionally have it divided into 

 spots. Notwithstanding the manner in 

 which Epiphron and Cassiope seen to cross 

 each other in their distinguishing character- 

 istics, they seem to me to differ more than do 

 some forms acknowledged to be distinct, and 

 I shall not be surprised if, when the larvae of 

 both are better known, they are pro- 

 nounced to be distinct species, but the genus 

 is one of such extreme difficulty, that the 

 most careful study should be given to it. I 

 would advise no entomologist to be satisfied 

 till he has a good series of both forms of this 

 insect. There are other two named varieties, 

 Nelamus, B., occurring on the Alps, which 

 scarcely has any black spots, and Pyrenaica, 

 H. S., occurring on the Pyrenees, which is 

 larger than the type, and has larger eyes. I 

 have heard of one specimen from Scotland i n 

 which the fulvous band is entirely wanting. 



Parasites- — None known to me. 



