276 



HARD WICKK S SCIENCE- G OSS IF. 



EUROPEAN BUTTERFLIES. 



I PAID a visit to the Continent last summer, for 

 the purpose of obtaining some of the rarer 

 species of butterflies for my collection of European 

 Rhopalocera, and though I was not so successful as I 

 had hoped to be, a few notes about my captures may 

 perhaps interest some of your readers. 



My first stopping-place was Coblence, where I 

 arrived about the middle of May. 



I went there chiefly in the hope of again seeing 

 Orchis hircina, a plant which I found there ten or 

 twelve years ago, but which, although I have al- 

 ways since been on the look-out for it, I have never 

 seen elsewhere. 



I was, however, entirely unsuccessful in my search 

 for it, although I went over the old ground day after 

 day for a week : it had evidently been extirpated. 



The only at all rare orchis which I saw was 

 militai'is, of which, however, I found no more than 

 two or three plants. 



As to butterflies, they were few and far between. 

 Napi, Cardamines and Egeria, with some Brassicai, 

 comprising nearly all the species I met with. 



This was in all probability owing partly to the 

 lateness of the season, and in part to the great abun- 

 dance of rain that fell whilst I was there. 



My next stopping-place was Heidelberg. I went 

 there chiefly in the hope of getting larvre of Euphorbia. 

 These occur in great abundance on the right bank of 

 the Neckar, just below the town. I was not success- 

 ful, however, in my searches, as there was not a 

 single caterpillar to be seen up to the 14th of June, 

 when I left for Freiburg (in Baden), though in some 

 seasons I have found them more than half-grown on 

 that date, and I once had plenty of pupa; by the first 

 week in July, and the imago out by the middle of 

 that month. Crataegi was just coming when I was 

 leaving. Galatea, generally abundant — as it is almost 

 everywhere — was, however, nowhere to be seen, nor 

 were Podalirius, Ilia, Pruni, Sibylla, Virgaurise or 

 Ar/on, though in ordinary seasons I should have 

 found all of them more or less plentiful. My cap- 

 tures comprised Machaon (very fine), Aurinia (taken 

 on first emerging, and therefore perfect). Hyale 

 apparently just out of the chrysalis — I cannot help 

 thinking these must have hybernated as pupae — and 

 a very fine lot of Paniscus, an insect that was to be 

 seen almost everywhere in the woods. In addition 

 to the above, I got three very fine specimens of the 

 pretty Arcania, one or two Cinxia, and a single 

 Athalia ; this last was just emerging as I was leaving. 

 It follows Aurinia and Euphrosyne on a rough, damp 

 meadow lying quite in the forest behind Ziegelhausen. 



By the way, curiously enough, there are in this 

 meadow quite a number of plants of that almost 

 typical Alpine plant Arnica vioniana. Aurinia and 

 Athalia — and indeed Euphrosyne too — occur here in 

 great profusion when they are in season. They are 



followed by Aglacia, which is more abundant at this 

 spot than any other place that I know of. Paphia, 

 too, occurs, but more spanngly, and is more confined 

 to the forest paths. 



The larvae of Rhamni was plentiful everywhere. 

 I took a few, from which I obtained some fine 

 specimens for my cabinet. The beautiful moth Tau 

 was plentiful in the woods, and dashed about in its 

 apparently reckless flight in all directions. 



I went to Freiburg, in the expectation of getting 

 Rutilus — the continental form of the extinct Dispar — 

 at New Breisach (about twelve miles distant), where, 

 according to Kane, it is abundant at the proper 

 seasons, which are nominally early in June and 

 August ; but in June I totally failed in my object, 

 owing, I have no doubt, to the lateness of the season. 

 In September, however, I managed to catch about 

 two dozen of this pretty little insect, and in fact I 

 found three caterpillars feeding on the great water- 

 dock (/?. hydrolapathuin) — the food-plant of Dispar j 

 these pupated safely ; but to my great regret the box 

 which contained them was thrown down by accident, 

 and two in consequence came out crippled, the 

 third, however, was a very perfect male. Rutilus 

 is at its best a sorry representative of the type, the 

 extinction of which is a fact ever to be lamented by 

 English Lepidopterists. Dispar was a far finer insect 

 both as to size and depth of colour than any other 

 European Polyommatus with which I am acquainted. 



When at Freiburg in June, I found Echine in pro- 

 fusion in a grassy road alongside a damp wood, a 

 mile or two west of the town. They were generally 

 settled on the ground in large flocks of from fifty to a 

 hundred ; they flew up on being approached, but soon 

 alighted again and in companies as before. They 

 were in the finest possible condition, and I got a 

 good serines of perfect specimens. 



Galatea and CratKgi were also plentiful, as were 

 also many other commoner species. I got one good 

 example of Argiades, the only specimen of that insect 

 I ever saw alive, and one Dictynna. 



In September I got a few Prorsa, and a good series 

 of the female of Dorilis, one being a nice variety. I 

 also saw at New Breisach a few Daplidice, and a good 

 many Comma ; Machaon, too, was fairly plentiful, and 

 I secured one shattered specimen of Circe, and saw 

 a second, which escaped my net by flying across a 

 river that I could not ford. Circe is a very fine and 

 striking-looking insect, some specimens are as much 

 as three inches and a quarter in expanse of wing. 

 The contrast of the pure white band on the black 

 ground-colour of the wings, renders it a very con- 

 spicuous object when flying. 



At the end of the third week in June, I moved on 

 to Neuchatel, in the woods above which place I 

 hoped to find Ilia. In this I was altogether unsuc- 

 cessful, as I did not see a single specimen of that 

 butterfly. 



I was evidently too soon for it in such a backward 



