192 INSECT LIFE xm 



S. muscoides, both making dark thick little cushions, 

 the former with purple blossoms, the latter with 

 white, washed with yellow. When the sun is hotter 

 one sees a splendid butterfly flutter from one 

 blossomed tuft to another, its white wings marked 

 by four patches of vivid rose-carmine encircled with 

 black. It is Parnassius apollo, the graceful dweller 

 in Alpine solitudes, near the eternal snows. Its 

 caterpillar lives on saxifrages. With the Apollo let 

 us end this sketch of the joys which await the 

 naturalist on the top of Mont Ventoux and return 

 to the Ammophila hirsuta, crouching in great 

 numbers under a sheltering stone, when the rain 

 came up and surrounded us. 



