THE LEPIDOPTERA OF PIEDMONT : TORRE PELLICE. 169 



The Lepidoptera of Piedmont: Torre Pellice. 



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



The historical associations of the Vaudois valleys will always 

 attract many visitors, but so far as I know, next to nothing has been 

 clone entomologically by those who have visited the district. On 

 paper, the Vaudois looks promising. It is situated considerably 

 farther south than Susa, and is so far hilly in the lower parts abutting 

 on the great plain of Piedmont, and mountainous as one gets further 

 towards the French frontier, that one suspects there must be much 

 wild ground eminently fitted for the haunts of many rare and local 

 insects. Having found the mountains on the French side of Monte 

 Viso fairly productive for lepidoptera, I determined to spend a short 

 time on the Italian side among the same group of mountains, and 

 accordingly arrived on July 30th, 1901, at Torre Pellice, the principal 

 town of the district. Intending visitors will find the Hotel de I'Ours 

 a very satisfactory stopping-place, but must be careful to make arrange- 

 mants if staying en pension, as to wine, &c., or one will find himself 

 saddled with extras not usual in the district. I may say at once that 

 my visit, entomologically, was not a great success, due, evidently, to 

 three facts : (1) The closely cultivated condition of the ground, 

 leaving little in the shape of waste without long and tiring walks from 

 Torre Pellice to reach any suitable collecting ground. (2) The time of my 

 visit was much too late for the district. (8) I had no previous know- 

 ledge of the place, and, hence, had todD mush more or less useless pro- 

 specting. For future visitors I would make the following suggestions. 

 None of the reccgnised walks are of mush use ; that up the Valley of 

 Angrognais especially beautiful, but is much too highly cultivated, or 

 too thickly covered with groves of chestnut or walnut for the greater part 

 of its distance to be of much service entomologically, although here and 

 there in the more open parts Ercbia aethiops was in large numbers, 

 Pohjrjonia c«»(;»a, frequent, whilst Brenthia selene, McUtacaphoehc, Chryso- 

 phanus pldaeaa and LeKcophasia sinapis were common. Puli/nmniatus 

 icarus and Drijas papkia abounded, and, with the latter, var. valeslna, 

 whilst every head of EupatoriiiDi was tenanted by newly-emerged Calli- 

 niorpha Iiera, and frequently with An/ijnnh lathonia and A. ivUppe var. 

 deodnxa, and Satijrus herinione was commonly disturbed from the 

 trunks of the chestnut trees. Strange to say, Pobjommatus conjdon was 

 only just coming out, and only males were seen. The exploration of the 

 higher parts above the Barricade and the Pra del Tor must be left to later 

 visitors. Weather was against me the only time I made the attempt. 

 I did not make the trip to Luserna and Eosa, for which I was 

 afterwards sorry, as the landlord of the Hotel de I'Ours informed me 

 later that it was really the wildest district within fairly easy reach of 

 Torre Pellice, and, therefore, should have produced something. The low 

 ground from Torre to Bobbie is worth one day's work, but one 

 must keep one's eye open and explore all likely spots. I never have 

 seen so many Mclitaea pJioebe as there were on August 2nd, on the 

 curve of the road that one will find just beyond the hamlet of St. 

 Marguerite (almost to be considered an outlying part of Torre). It 

 had been wet the previous day, and the species simply swarmed on 

 the road and the flowers at the roadside ; one could easily have taken 

 several hundreds had one so desired between here and Ricat in 

 July 1st, 1901. 



