SPRINCr AMD ATTTTT^TV OKSP',RVATrONS IM SOUTH-EAST FRANCE. 311 



Aberration of Argynnis aglaia {with plate). 



By (Eev.) a. M. moss, M.A. 



I have already (antea, p. 291) made I'eference to a magnificent black 

 aberration of Aniynnh aglaia taken by me at Villars, on July 26th, 

 1902. At the suggestion of Mr. Tutt I have had a plate prepared 

 to exhibit the marked features of the aberration for the readers 

 of the Fynt. Record, and add the following detailed description of this 

 striking aberration. The figures are from careful drawings which 

 I have made from the specimen, which is a male in perfect condition. 

 It has the median area of all four wings of an entire rich black on the 

 upper surface. The base of the wings is of a warm bronze hue, sur- 

 mounted in the forewings with a crescentic mark, small orbicular, and 

 terminal streaks between the nervures of the typical A aijlaia brown. 

 The posterior row of black spots on the hindwings is only just visible 

 in three places, the ground colour being equally black. The body, legs 

 and antennie are normal. On the underside the median area of the 

 forewings is again black, except the nervures, which are red-brown, and 

 the termen of the wings ochreous, the black not being carried to the 

 fringe as on the upper surface. Anterior silver spots of hindwings 

 backed with olive-brown. Submedian series deep blue black with a few 

 silver scales — most on lowest spot. These spots are set in a some- 

 what lighter olive-brown ground. Terminal silver spots small, slightly 

 sinuate and anteriorly edged with red-brown. The ground colour of 

 the hindwings is a very perfect blend of three colours, olive-green, 

 olive-brown, and a trace of ochre. The fringe is whiter than in 

 the type. The whole butterfly is of very striking appearance and 

 somewhat resembles a specimen caught at Ipswich in 1827, and 

 figured in Curtis' British Entomoloijy. 



Some spring and autumn observations chiefly in south-east France. 



By H. KOWLAND BBOWN, M.A., F.E.S. 

 For the first time in my life as a collector I think, it has fallen out 

 this year that I have seen the first and last butterfly of the season 

 abroad, and, curiously enough, at points within a few miles of each 

 other. On March 26th I left London, arriving next morning at 

 Avignon, and the first insect on the wing that greeted me was Pieria 

 brassicae; some months later, as I turned northward from Vienne, on 

 October 20th, the last butterfly I remember to have seen was a fresh 

 female of the same species flitting weakly over the ancient walls of that 

 extremely interesting city of the Romans. From the cabinet point of 

 view, 1902 has been a marked failure for me, not because of any 

 particular scarcity of insects in their usual haunts, but because cir- 

 cumstances took me to them at the earliest and latest months for day- 

 hunting in the south-eastern corner of France. The best day of the 

 whole year was undoubtedly the first that I unfurled my net — 

 March 31st— when I found myself at the Pont du Gard, on ground 

 well-known to other collectors, and, at a later date, even more prolific 

 of species than on that brilliant spring morning. The cistus was not yet 

 in flower, but the limestone hills were sweet with the scent of a small 

 white narcissus about the size of a snowdrop, thick clusters of rosemary, 

 and the ever suggestive fragrance of the budding thyme, Among the 

 December 15th, 1902. 



