THE SEASON OF 1914 IN SOUTH PROVENCE. 79 



the 14th saw us on the Riviera, and the latter half of the month was 

 passed at Nice. A fortnight at St. Martin Vesubie took us back almost 

 to winter, then came ten days in the milder climate of Annot, and on 

 June 28rd began four weeks at Digne, which brought the season to a 

 close. In 1911, I had worked Digne from May 16th to June 12th, 

 and I was much interested in picking up the season there where I had 

 left it. 



With the exception of the fortnight at St. Martin Vesubie, the 

 weather was excellent throughout, bright hot summer from the very 

 first, and at Digne the afternoon thunderstorm, which seems a feature 

 in the day's weather, never interfered with the morning's work. 

 During the whole of the sunny stay at Nice, masses of clouds brooded 

 over the Maritime Alps, and when we trained up to St. Martin we 

 simply went under them and into an English April at its worst, and 

 the change was equally great when we came on to Digne and the July 

 of South France. On the whole the season was decidedly early. 



On April 6th we passed streams of Pieris brassicae and P. rajme 

 along the embankments and cultivated fields, as our train did its twelve 

 miles an hour from Marseilles towards Aix, and on the 7th I began 

 work round Cesar's Tower in quest of E. einstyiine. The mistral 

 was blowing strongly, but I managed to put up four fresh specimens ; 

 a single (rlaiicoiifii/che )iielanops, and two very fresh GoRepterijA- deopatra 

 were tha only other signs of life on this barren and and hill. Lower 

 down Anthdc/iaris belia and Pontia dajdidice var, hellidice, were begin- 

 ning to appear, also CuUas edasa, Paraiye meijaera and P. aei/eria, 

 Goncjiteri/.v rhannii and Eucldo'e canlaniines. There is a great charm to 

 my mind in early collecting in Provence. There is no bewildering 

 profusion of insects, but everything is fresh and worth looking at, and 

 there is the hourly interest of seeing new species emerge, and the feel- 

 ing that one is adding five weeks to the English collecting year. 



The wind was still too strong for Krebia eiiistij(jne on the 8th, but 

 Lepto.sia ninapis, Colias lnjale, and Pajiillo podaliiins appeared. The 9th 

 was a calm day at last, and a good series of PL episUjipie resulted, males 

 and females almost equally divided. The only Lycaenidae about were 

 G. nielaudps and Sculitantides baton, the latter the smallest butterfiy I 

 have ever seen, much less than the average size of Cupido iiiinintuii. On 

 the 11th we tried another hill, the Gallifet estate, for Anthocharis belia 

 var. belU'zina, but nothing appeared except L. ninapk and G . welanops, 

 the latter not abundant, but spread evenly over the district, all males in 

 fine condition. Lower down I also took Eripivu altheae and E.alceae, 

 and a very fine dark form of limincia pidaeas. Several Polyyonia eyea 

 were seen, settled on walls, but in very bad repair. 



Of hybernated species, Pyriimeis cardiii was everywhere in force, 

 and continued so throughout the summer. 1 had already noticed 

 Papilio iiiac/i(tn)i, Hesperia nidlvae, CoeiionyDijiha paDip/iiliix, Pidyoni- 

 Hiatus icanis [aliwis), Celastrina aryialiis and CaWiphrys nibi, or 31 

 species up to April 11th. 



On returning from a useless search over the Gallifet ground on the 

 13th, I noticed some small whites on the high road, and found them to 

 be Ant/ioc/iaris belia var. belUzina, though I could not trace them to any 

 likely breeding ground, but on the next day, passing the open gate of 

 an abandoned oliveyard, I noticed three small buttertiies just inside, 

 and arrested them on suspicion. They proved to be var. bellezina, 



