LEPIDOPTKRA OK HAI'TK-SAVOIE I MEOEVE. 258 



Lepidoptera of Haute=Savoie: Megeve (in't/i jiltotoijraph.). 



By .1. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



Haute-Savoie has deservedly won a great reputation for its lovely 

 and majestic scenery, and Chamonix has become a central playground 

 for thousands of English tourists. As I had never been to Chamonix, 

 and wished to spend a month in the department of Haute-Savoie, 1 

 determined to eschew the recognised route, and to go via Culoz, 

 Annecy, Thones, Flumet and St. Gervais, a route much patronised by 

 the French people as passing through a lovely country little known to, 

 and not at all frequented by, the foreigner. Now that the steam 

 tramway runs from Annecy to Thones, and diligences are in corres- 

 pondance between Thones and Le Fayet, whence runs the electric 

 railway to Chamonix, a delightful piece of country has been opened, 

 which, for many years, has only been possible to those who were wealthy 

 enough to hire private carriages for a long journey, or so little saddled 

 with luggage that they could journey on foot the whole of this distance. 

 I recommend it now as a delightful and alternative route to those via 

 Geneva or Martigny, and one that cannot fail to please the tourist who 

 has already gone by either of the better known routes. 



Like almost all the more highly cultivated departments, Haute- 

 Savoie is not altogether the best district in France for lepidoptera. 

 Not that a complete list of the lepidoptera of the department might 

 not compare favourably with that of almost any other department in 

 France, but insects are not in that amazing abundance that they are 

 in some of the districts of Dauphiny, or the Basses-Alpes, or the Jura. 

 Except in their chosen haunts the number of specimens of many of 

 the various species observed is usually small, and one does not see the 

 wayside teeming with that abundance of insect life that one observes in 

 many parts of Switzerland, Piedmont and south-eastern France. 

 Notices here and there along the road warn the vagrant that he may 

 not cut the herbage by the roadside, a bad sign for the entomologist, 

 for one knows at once that the said herbage is private property, and 

 will be cut and harvested, and that all such usually happy resting-grounds 

 are closed to the wayside butterflies of the country. Still one can find 

 butterflies enough if one chooses one's ground and keeps, as far as 

 possible, away from cultivated regions. Between Annecy and Thones, 

 on the brilliant morning of August 4th, the wayside was, in places, 

 swarming with insects, of which the large fritillaries — Dri/as jiaji/tia, 

 An/i/nuis adippc — and faliiniorpha licra were usuall}' the most noticeable, 

 although colonies of blues, mostly I'oli/onnnatus cori/doii, were frequently 

 observed. Between Thones and Flumet, the village of La Clusaz 

 would make an excellent hunting-ground, and plenty of convenience 

 for a stay exists there. Here l^diiassiiai apollo makes an appearance, 

 and I'oli/oiiirnatiia (Uoiion occurs in amazing abundance. The beautiful 

 Col d'Aravis with a ravishing first sight of three of the main peaks of 

 Mont Blanc in this direction, did not seem so productive as might have 

 been expected, Krchia iiu'laiiiints and K. styunc being the only two 

 species that were netted to make assurance doubly sure that the species 

 were correctly identified. Strangely, Cucnonyiii/ilia pamphiliis was 

 common on the top of the Col. Just through the tunnel of La 

 Giettaz was a splendid butterfly corner, where Colias phiconione and 

 other species were recognised as being abundant as the diligence swept 



UcTOiiEK I.JTII, 1902. 



