278 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



ing this, the best, if not the shortest, way home from Corsica, seemed 

 to be rid Nice and Pnget-Theniers, the road which I traversed last 

 autumn in all the late splendours of the fall. The railway-station is 

 La Vesubie on the Chemin de fer du Sud. A char-aXancs plies 

 between it and intermediate villages, taking four leisurely hours and 

 more to cover the twenty-one miles. This drive alone is worth a 

 journey to the south in summer. The wind and river singing through 

 the split precipitous chasms, keep the air cool on the hottest day, 

 though there is quite as much dust on the road as makes for discom- 

 fort. However, that only means that the wayside halt, and the figs 

 and the gold-green grape clusters, will be more desired and appreciated. 

 You can get a hatful (large size Panama) of figs for thirty centimes, 

 and enough grapes to do the "cure " in one day for the same small 

 sum. On a hot outing this profusion is an inestimable boon, especially 

 when collecting away from the valleys in the lower hills where water 

 is not to be found Avith certainty. The actual height of St. Martin 

 Vesubie is a little over 3000ft., or rather more than 1000ft. higher 

 than Digne. Madone de Fenestre, with a by no means uncomfortable 

 little hotel, reached by the upper valley of the Vesubie, is 6260ft. The 

 valley of the Borreon, which joins the Vesubie at St. Martin, is for the 

 most part, highly cultivated. By far the best hunting-ground is 

 between the town and Venanson, a tiny village perched high on an 

 escarpment of rock overlooking the whole valley. My first day at 

 Vesubie was spent investigating this particular route right up to the 

 pretty amphitheatre, into which another stream discharges itself 

 from the higher levels. Here, on July 26th, I saw more butterflies on 

 the wing than elsewhere on the whole of my expedition put together. 

 On the moist places left by the runnels, now dry, Melitaea pluiebe was 

 in great abundance with M. uthalia, while I noticed that .V. (lidijwa 

 attained a size far superior to anything I have taken in the south of 

 France or elsewhere. But quite the commonest species on the wing 

 was Sati/nis actaea var. cordiila, the males very fine and large, predom- 

 inating. ,S'. circe, S. nenieU and S. alcijone were also abundant ; but 

 neither now, nor later, did I encounter, in these valleys, .S. briseis, S. 

 statiliniis, S. jiilia, or S. arethusa, all, according to Mr. Bromilow's list, 

 occurring there more or less commonly. Probably I was too early in 

 this late season for the three, and how curious a mixture of spring and 

 summer forms I met with will be understood when I say that, with the 

 autumn or second brood of Pontia dapUdice and (Toneptenjx elfopatra, 

 I presently observed a perfect male Km-hlin' var. eitplwnoides, certainly 

 the latest date I have ever found this single-brooded southern butterfly. 

 Meanwhile, another exceedingly numerous insect was Chri/suiiJianiis 

 var. (/ordius, also in superb condition, of both sexes, with a nice bright 

 form of ('. darilis. On the stonecrop, flowering on the wayside walls, 

 and also, wherever a stunted sloe-bush struggled for existence, Thecla 

 iliri.s var. cent was to be found with a few ragged Callojdni/s nibi. The 

 former flower also yielded a single male Lamjn'des trUcaniis, the main 

 brood of which, as I afterwards ascertained at Digne, flies later in 

 August. Other Lycaenids about included Pleheius an/tts (acffon), very 

 small, P. ar(/!/ra(/iioiiio)i, I'oli/omviotiis baton (practically over), /'. 

 astrarche, P. icanis (not remarkable in anyway), P. cac/icn, P. bdlarifiis, 

 P. conjdon, P. Injlas and P. iiielecKjcr, of which it is noticeable that the 

 only females taken by me were the ab. uteveni. P. lueleaiier, indeed, 



