LEPIDOPTERA OF THE BASSES-ALPES BEAUVEZER. 173 



attain perfect condition — its wings did not grow in the least — so I 

 imagine it had been endeavouring to escape for some time before 

 I noticed it. 



May 9th. — The larva that had attached itself to the side of the pan 

 emerged this morning — a male of typical form. There are now only 

 two fullgrown and three small larvae and about half-a-dozen pupae left 

 out of the large number I had before Christmas. 



May 21st. — Only one larva left and all the pupae seem to be dead. 



June 7th. — The last larva discovered dead and black among its food. 



It is difficult to understand why these larvae should have died off in 

 this manner, for they were treated as near to natural conditions as 

 possible, having been fed on healthy plants of Rum-ex acetosa and R. 

 acetosella growing in large flower-pots and -pans placed in a window 

 facing south, which was kept open whenever practicable, so they had 

 plenty of fresh air and plenty of morning sun when it was shining. 

 They all looked perfectly healthy up to within a day or so before they 

 died, when they changed from bright green to olive-green, and 

 gradually got darker until eventually they became almost black, and 

 so died ; and others shrivelled up without much change of colour, and 

 most of the few r pupae also shrivelled up, though a couple of them 

 contained dead imagines. 



A few years ago I tried to rear this species through the winter, and 

 with almost the same results. I think it probable that, in a state of 

 nature, there is a great mortality among the larvae, for, as far as my 

 experience goes, the butterfly is never very plentiful anywhere, and 

 the spring brood is always scarce and much less numerous than the 

 succeeding broods. I should like to hear if others, who may have tried 

 to rear this butterfly, have been more successful than myself. 



Lepidoptera of the Basses=Alpes— Beauvezer. 



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

 Leaving Digne on August 7th, I at last made a start for Alios via 

 St. Andrc-les-Meouilles. Not knowing the country, I let the open 

 "char," apparently attached to the Hotel Alp at Beauvezer, go oft', and 

 took a seat in one of the terrible little diligences that ply between here 

 and Alios (and indeed to Barcelonette). It was a hot afternoon, and 

 by the time that the conveyance reached Beauvezer, I had quite made 

 up my mind that Alios would not see me that day. The country here 

 really is too fine to be shut up in a diligence, and one wants to walk 

 every step of it. It is, however, a long uphill grind to Alios of 25 miles, 

 with more than 2000ft. rise, and one suspects the country capable of 

 producing much entomologically, but I feel certain that it must be 

 ;it ;i much earlier date than early August. Even Coenonympha dorus, 

 of which, certainly, good specimens were obtainable a day or two before 

 at I >igne, was quite over in the valley, one worn wreck only being seen 

 at Alios, at 4700ft. elevation, suggesting the Verdon Valley to be even 

 earlier than Digne. However, having planted my baggage in the road, 

 and waited for the porter, I found very comfortable quarters at the 

 Hotel Alp, and, on the morning of the 8th, commenced to explore the 

 country behind the hotel, i.e., to the left hand as one goes towards 

 Alios. Here everything showed I was much too late, although I 

 captured a lot of odds and ends, and was more than satisfied with a 



