$re = '/(.+?)\s+(\d+:\d+:\d+)\s+(.+?)(\d+:\d+)(\S+)/m';
$str = 'Lorem 1:06:16 ips48:5um.';
$subst = "$1 <span class=\"time\">$2</span> $3<span class=\"time\">$4</span>$5";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php