1902 Butterfly-Hunting in the Alps Z'j 



delicacies ! There is a story related of a German professor 

 whose exertions made him the particular object of attention 

 to the butterflies of certain tropical species. I have found 

 that perspiration attracts insects, mostly of the undesirable 

 and undesired orders, but it has been observed that persons 

 who suffer from gout and other affections of the blood are as 

 often as not exempt from their attacks. This by the way, 

 or perhaps I should say thc^c by the way, for they are almost 

 invariably in irritating attendance, especially in the pine- 

 woods and the long grass. 



Among old friends, the Whites are the last to desert us on 

 passing from the lower to the upper zone. There are, how- 

 ever, two species, which must not be confused. That 

 ordinary-looking butterfly is not the form of the Green- 

 veined White {Pieris napi) which occurs at home in the 

 spring and autumn months. On examination, the green 

 marking will be found to have nearly disappeared, and the 

 wings are so suffused with black as to appear as if they 

 had been smudged with burnt cork. This is a purely 

 mountain variety of the female only, and is called var. 

 bryonicB. The other alpine White is a very different insect, 

 though the male, on the upper side, is not altogether unlike 

 the preceding. Pieris callidice may be found up to 10,000 

 feet, flitting over short grass slopes in company with the 

 Ringlets; but it goes at a furious pace when disturbed, 

 and as often as not, when taken, presents a very tattered 

 appearance. On the under side the characteristic green 

 veins are broadened into yellowish shades, while the female, 

 on the upper wings, is, if anything, more like the Bath 

 White (P. daplidice), which occasionally appears in the 

 mountains, but is commoner lower down, as, for instance, 

 on the nice bit of hot marshy collecting-ground round Sierre 

 in the Rhone valley. 



Every alpine district — and, I may safely say, every 

 mountain and valley in it — has its own particular insects, 

 and it is at first sight perhaps remarkable that the richest 

 hillsides are very often the poorest collecting-grounds. 

 .The reason, however, is not far to seek. The hay-harvest 

 in the mountains is continuous, while the worst enemies 

 of the butterfly-hunter are the mild-mannered, amiable 



