LEPIDOPTERA OF THE BASSES-ALPES ALLOS TO LAC D'ALLOS. 197 



Lepidoptera of the Basses=AIpes — Alios to Lac d'Allos. 



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



Continuing my notes in the preceding number, I may say that, 

 on August 10th 1907, I set out seriously to find Mr. Powell, and made 

 straight for the Lac d'Allos. This piece of country is quite delightful. 

 It is of the type so characteristic of those arid Basses-Alpes, with their 

 black shaly beds, worn out along the valleys into great elephant-back 

 curves that are seen possibly nowhere else in Europe. The fauna 

 and flora of the lower part of the valley is more of a lowland type, but 

 a rise of some 700 or 800ft. leads one to a long walk by the side of the 

 river, on a slippery shaly path, and, when one leaves this and strikes 

 the limestone beyond, the fauna and flora change, as if by magic, and 

 a mile or so further, one reaches a pretty waterfall, where one can say, 

 almost definitely, sub-alpine conditions begin to prevail, and from thence 

 up to the lake, at above 7000ft. elevation, the alpine conditions get 

 more and more marked. I tried many other walks up and down the 

 valley, none of which were really very successful, and I should plump 

 for the walk up to the lake and the heights above, as being the best 

 collecting-ground in the district. The long grind from Alios to the 

 Lac d'Allos is good collecting-ground almost all the way. It rises 

 from 1675ft. to about 7400ft. The guide-books say that the journey 

 can be done in two hours ; personally, for entomological purposes, to 

 get up there, I prefer eight, although three is long enough to come 

 down. Possibly Pontia daplidice, Colias hyale, and C. edusa are among 

 the most widely distributed species in the lower part of the journey, 

 whilst equally generally distributed, and found almost everywhere here, 

 are Pararge maera, Epinephele tycoon, Issoria lathonia, Melitaea didyma, 

 certainly of the single-brooded, higher-level form of the species, Erebia 

 neoridas, at this time, almost all males, and Melitaea phuebe, the large fine 

 alpine form. Some way along this path were a few wych elms and an 

 abundance of blackthorn ; here we found a few worn Edwardria w-album 

 and Nordmannia acaciae, the latter in rather better condition than the 

 former, and very busy about the blackthorn shoots, or, later in the after- 

 noon, sitting on the flowers in the meadow between the trees and the 

 stream. This meadow was a splendid corner for many insects, of which 

 one may note Melitaea didyma, Melanargia galatea, Gonepteryx rhamni, 

 Colias edusa, C. hyale, Issoria lathonia, Aglais urticae, Pyrantels cardui, 

 P. atalanta, Urbicola comma, Agriades corydon, Coenonympha pamphilus, 

 Hesperia alveus, Adopaea thaumas, Loweia gordius, going over, Polyom- 

 matus icarus, and Thymelicus acteon, also passe, whilst a little further on, 

 where the road reached the level of the stream, we met, for the first time, 

 Erebia euryale, in numbers, and a sprinkling of the larger fritillaries, 

 Argynnis aglaia and A. niobe. Here, too, strangely, a few male Aporia 

 erataegi, not at all in bad condition, occurred ; one is not surprised 

 at late transparent females, but these (four) were all males, no female 

 being seen, whilst a specimen or two of Limenitis Camilla showed the 

 species past its prime. Brenihis amathusia, too, also worn, still persisted 

 in moderate numbers, and Melitaea pkoebe was frequent. Near 

 here, too, a splendid large butterfly swiftly moved along the path, 

 and, suddenly sailing back in straight line, a fine Euvanessa antiopa, 

 quite recently emerged, was in the net. On the torrent-slope here, 

 also, I worked some time for a short series of the large and fine 

 September 15th, 1907. 



