228 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



Lepidoptera of the Juras — Versoix. 



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



My last day's collecting in 1906, August 24th, was in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Versoix, a village on Lake Geneva, and just north of 

 the city. These waste lands on the foothills of the Juras form 

 a delightful collecting-ground, and under another cloudless sky, 

 Mr. Muschamp and Dr. Denso, with Mr. Muschamp's active little 

 son, piloted me over some fresh entomological ground. The 

 season, I was warned, was over ; the drought had hurried off 

 everything, and little could be expected. To a certain extent 

 this was true, yet a most interesting morning's outing was the 

 result. One of the first insects noted was Celastrina argiolus, 

 apparently ovipositing on the hedges, and, as usual in this district, 

 Colias edusa and C. hyale swung rapidly across the roadway, or flew 

 busily from flower to flower of the lucerne or sainfoin plants. In a 

 rough overgrown meadow, Satyrus circe was discovered, and here, in 

 glorious abundance on the scabious flowers, were quantities of newly- 

 emerged Brenthis dia, Melitaea parthenie, and M. didyma. The latter 

 were undoubted second-brood, with fine pale females that are so 

 characteristic of the lowland autumn race, and quite different from 

 the darker examples of Beauvezer and Clelles which had been met 

 with during the preceding month. Erebia aethiops was comparatively 

 rare, and the second-brood of Melitaea phoebe was only just on the 

 move, or otherwise rare. Here, too, webs of larvae of what we thought 

 were Melitaea aurinia, were found, but Mr. Muschamp suspected them 

 to be M. dictynna, a species for which this place is a locality, and as 

 we failed to rear those we brought away, we at any rate cannot say for 

 certain what they really were. On the drier ground towards the river, 

 Agriades bellargus, too, was common, although the females were 

 scarce ; there were plenty of Hex/ieiia alveus, a fine strongly-marked 

 form of the type I know only in the south of France, but Erynnis 

 altheae was rather scarce, a second-brood of rather small specimens 

 evidently just emerging; Urbicola comma, rather large females, with 

 somewhat small white spots on the underside ; whilst Polyoiinnatus 

 hylas was going over, and Aricia astrarche not at all common. On the 

 other hand Issoria lathonia was frequently seen and in fine condition, 

 and Pontia daplidice had also evidently only just emerged, and was not 

 uncommon. I 'lebeius argus (argyrognomon) was still out, and there w T ere 

 some pigmy Polyommatus icarus, suggestive of the tiny specimens 

 observed at Gresy-sur-x\ix a few days previously. Very few moths were 

 noted, possibly due to our inattention, and not to absence of the 

 moths, but among others, Acidalia straminata, A. immorata, Botys 

 flavalis, Adkinia bipunctidactyla, etc., were sampled. Cerigo matiira 

 buzzed about by day ; it had been common at sugar at the Bois des 

 Freres the preceding evening, August 23rd. On this evening three of 

 my fellow-members of the Geneva Entomological Society piloted me 

 round one of their best sugar preserves, and generously made me accept 

 the spoils of the chase. Mr. Mottaz had kindly gone ahead and 

 prepared the ground, and, by the time I arrived with Mr. Muschamp 

 and Dr. Denso, the moths had begun to arrive. Five large Cato- 

 calas haunt the trees, including Catocala fraxini, C. nupta, C. 

 promissa, and C. sponsa, but the night was not too favourable, and the 



