138 THE entomologist's record. 



stepping in to assist art, and art hardly disfiguring nature here as so 

 often elsewhere. Above, the cloudless blue sky : in the distance the 

 deep blue sea, and here and there the golden islands lazily shimmering 

 in the delicate haze of the morning. Such was the prospect which 

 greeted me as I pocketed my net on the Monday morning after my 

 arrival, and sallied out to investigate the woods about Costabelle in 

 general, and the quarries which scar the hillside in particular. I had 

 not then the advantage of the kind information given me later by Mr. 

 Raine, who has worked the district these eleven years. But I had 

 evidently hit upon the right spot to make a beginning, and, as events 

 subsequently proved, the quarries were among my best hunting 

 grounds. Here, on the flowers of the broom, Callophrys rubi was 

 Sitting about in the sunshine, and persistently attacking another little 

 brown butterfly, which I did not at once recognise to be the local and 

 interesting TlwHtor ballm. This insect, when netted, at a distance, 

 looks uncommonly like Chri/fiophami^ phlacas, but on closer inspection 

 it is easily distinguishable by the delicate arsenic green fur with which 

 the wing bases on the underside are plentifully adorned. Though not 

 occurring, I believe, at Cannes, or further east of it, Tlwstor ballm, 

 from the middle of March until the middle of April, is the commonest 

 insect in the woods and in the quarries, but, as Mr. Buckmaster {¥hit. 

 Fu'cord, vol. ix., p. 303) did not meet with it after the 28th of the 

 month, it is probable that its flight is limited to six weeks at the out- 

 side. The sexual dimorphism of this species is exceedingly interesting, 

 and I do not suppose any species, even among the variable LyciBnida, 

 present a more pronounced difference in the coloration and marking 

 of the two sexes. Owing, however, to the prevailing wind, I suppose, 

 which blows at Hyeres night and day, it is not easy to procure perfect 

 specimens on the wing, and my series is more remarkable for quantity 

 than quality. With T. ballns 1 found both P. baton and its ab. 

 pannptes in profusion, the coloration and size in the male varying 

 wonderfully, from almost black to light dusty slate blue. P. icarus, 

 a few early stragglers ; I\ astrarclte (April 5th), and to my great satis- 

 faction, Nomiadi's miianops in fine condition, which I thus took for the first 

 time with my net. Mr. Raine told me that it was not usually common, 

 but I found it more or less distributed throughout the district. 

 On the pink valerian, meanwhile, GonopU'rtj.v cleopatra was engaged in 

 ceaseless combat with the all-pervading " Cabbagers," and I was able 

 to take a perfect series of both male and female. With respect to the 

 latter, it certainly is very much like Li. rhanini, but I think that the 

 colouring is far more vivid, the angles of the wings more sharply 

 defined, and the size considerably in excess of the typical female of the 

 allied species. As to their identity, there could have been no manner 

 of doubt, for the whole time I was at Hyeres I did not come across a 

 single male of (r. rJiamni, though I kept a careful look out for it, and I 

 observe that Mr. Buckmaster does not mention having taken it either. 

 But perhaps as plentiful as both 6r. cleopatra and P. brassicae was 

 Antliocaris belia, varying much in size, and the females distinguishable 

 by the creamy pigment which pervades the hind-wings, the males 

 everywhere in excess. Mr. Raine tells me that A. tayis var. bdlezhia 

 is not found at Hyeres. There Colias edma, fresh as the proverbial 

 daisy, would dash past, evidently no hybernator, but the first of an 

 early brood, disporting with the "brimstones," and occasionally 



