LEPIDOPTERA OF PROVRXCK — HYERRS. 139 



Lepidoptera of Provence — Hyeres. 



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



In spite of the fine weather we experienced in England in early 

 March, I had not seen a single butterfly on the wing when I left for 

 southern France on March 26th, nor did I notice a single white butter- 

 fly on the journey to Paris, where, indeed, vegetation, as judged by the 

 hawthorn, cherry, pear, and plum blossom, was hardly so forward as in 

 the south of England, although much more so than in ordinary years. 

 At dawn, on March 28th, the train was in the ]\Iarseille district and a 

 very heavy white frost lay on the roads as well as the vegetation between 

 Marseille and Toulon, in spite of the fact that the pear, the cherry 

 and the peach blossom were in their fullest glory. At 7 a.m., at Toulon, 

 the sun was hot and the rime had entirely disappeared if, indeed, it had 

 reached quite so far, and when, about 8 a.m., we stepped from the train 

 at Hyeres, the lovely city of palms, the hot sun poured down as if it were 

 late June, making us seek the shade of the huge palms and mighty 

 eucalypti that flourish everywhere. Pieris rapae and /'. braadcae 

 appeared in hundreds in every garden, and the scent of the violet-fields 

 came along in heavy clouds causing one to breathe more heavily and 

 to take into one's lungs as much as possible of the fragrant scent-laden 

 air, whilst the roses hung, as if it were early July, in heavy festoons 

 f)-om every porch and arbour, covering the trellised sides of the larger 

 houses or hanging pendent from the pines, palms and eucalypti, into 

 which they had wantonly climbed to display their charming beauty, 

 and roses, such as many of our growers would view with envy, built 

 up the hedges by the wayside, and covered them with blossom. We 

 had been advised to go to the Hotel des Palmiers, and, surely enough, 

 here we found everything for one's comfort, and here we settled for 

 eight days, on a visit in which rest was to be the main feature, a rest 

 that should nerve one up again to go on with the interesting, albeit 

 wearying, details of Jiritish Lepidoptera, which had occupied more than 

 every moment of all our leisure during all the winter months, and 

 had robbed us of the outdoor exercise that we field entomologists have 

 trained ourselves to require, and the absence of which so soon aftects 

 us to our hurt. 



fjCiicopIiaMa sinapis, ri/rawcis atcdanta,a,s well as dozens of the two 

 common Pierids — Pieris rapae and /'. brasnieae — were noticed at the 

 long rows of magnificent stocks now fully in bloom that edged the 

 drive io the door of the hotel, and, as soon as preliminaries Avere settled, 

 and coftee and rolls disposed of, I folded my net and proceeded to look 

 round. To the left, along the Avenue des lies d'Or, I soon came into more 

 open ground, and Parari/e ine(/aera, joined the whites by the way- 

 side, whilst a scurrying " white "' soon displayed itself as Pontia daplidice. 

 < 'i/aitiris ar'iiolus was flyinu: in almost all the gardens, but ali-eady worn, 

 and when I turned up_ a bye-path to the right, to reach the higher 

 ground that I saw in the distance, ('olias edam was at once observed, the 

 females busily egg-laying on the clover plants growing in the pea-fields, 

 whilst the males, small, and generally of pale colour, were, so far as 

 those netted gives one a right to speak, already, in many cases, badly 

 worn and not worth setting. Of the three species of butterflies that 

 were really common— Pieris rapae, P. brassieae, Paran/r ineiiaera — 1 

 now saw great numbers, and the examination of several specimens of 

 June 1st, 1903. 



