4^^ AND "^/i^ 



JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



Vol. X. No. 3. March Ioth, 1898. 



Collecting in the Forest of Fontainebleau, in June, 1897. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



To get out of the crush of Jubilee week, Messrs. S. Edwards, Tunaley 

 and myself, started for Fontainebleau on the night of June 18th, 1897, 

 and left there again on the morning of June 26th. The magnificent 

 forest surrounds the town for about eight miles in every direction, and 

 hence a week was hardly sufficient to discover the species that existed 

 just round one's hotel. We were fortunate to be able to call on Monsieur 

 A. Finot, the veteran orthopterist, and accomplished author of 

 Fauna de la France : Imectes Orthopteres. With him we had two or 

 three delightful outings, and were introduced to localities that would 

 have been unexplored had we been left to our own resources. We 

 cannot, however, recommend Fontainebleau as a place where one can 

 spend a cheap holiday. It is a show place, and one has to pay for 

 accommodation at a rate much higher than in most parts of France. 



Fontainebleau has a great reputation as an entomological centre, 

 and no doubt deserves it. We were there between seasons, and 

 laboured under the disadvantage of not knowing the parts of the forest 

 noted for special Lepidoptera, and, in the latter particular, M. Finot 

 unfortunately could give us but little help. _ Still, we went for a 

 holiday, and yet our collecting boxes made a fair show before we closed 

 them, and said "good-bye" to the town. 



The number of species of Rhopalocera observed was very few, and 

 consisted of Si/richthus varthami, S. alveiis f (two worn), I'amphila 

 suJraniVi,TItij))i('lirus thaumafi, Papilio pndalirius, Aporia crataet/i, ricris 

 rapae, P.napi, 1'. brassicae and I'.daplidnr, ( 'alias hij ale, Thecla ir-albnni, 

 T. ilicin, Chrysujdianu.s phlaea.s, C. doiilis, Plebeiiis aerfon, Pohjominatxis 

 astrarche, P. icariis, P. bellanjiUi, P. corydnn, Melitaea at/talia, Dn/as 

 papJtia, Atyynnis aqlaia, A. adippe and ab. deodoxa, Pyrameis 

 atalanta, Aylais urticae, Liuienitis sihylla, Kpinephele ianira, Knodia 

 hypcranthm, Coenonymplia pamphilm, ('. arcania, Pararye achine, 

 Melananiia qalathea. Besides these, a very worn specimen of Callojdirys 

 nibi was noticed. This will strike one at once as a very meagre 

 list, and indeed it must be acknowledged that it is. 



The most abundant species were M. athalia, C. arcania and M. 

 ijalatliea. These were in great abundance, and P. aeyon, S. carthami, 

 F. hyperanthu.'^ and T. ilieis were only somewhat loss abundant. Still, 

 one feels, considering how local some of these species were, that if more 



