IN SUNNY SPAIN. 



3S 



In Sunny Spain.— July and August, 1912. (TTW* a plate.) 



By EOSA E. PAGE, B.A. 



" Pilgrim ! Oh say, has thy cheek been fann'd 

 By the sweet winds of my sunny land ? 

 Know'st thou the sound of its mountain pines? 

 And hast thou rested beneath its vines? 



Hast thou heard the music still wandering by 

 A thing of the breezes, in Spain's blue sky ? " 



Mrs. Hemans. 



For many years it had been Mr. Page's ardent wish to collect in 

 Spain, and on preparing the late Mr. J. W. Tutt's collection for sale 

 last autumn, the sight of the Spanish Parnas.niis a/iollu and other 

 insects brought from that country by Dr. Chapman in 1901, crystallised 

 the wish into a determination to visit the Sierras in the ensuing 

 summer. The first thing to do was to acquire a sufificient knowledge 

 of the Spanish language to carry us through. This was accomplished 

 during the winter session, and proved to be one of the prime factors in 

 the enjoyment of the trip — the study of languages not being at all 

 seriously undertaken by the people in this land of manana. 



Our dates are, I believe, rather later than those of entomologists 

 who have previously visited Spain, and thus it is hoped these notes 

 will prove interestmg. Leaving Charing Cross on July 25th, we 

 arrived to find ourselves necessarily too late for many of the special 

 Spanish species, but hoped by paying close attention to the ends of 

 broods to obtain some nice forms. In this, however, we were 

 disappointed. 



We stayed at Guethary (Hotel de la Plage — delightfully situated 

 and very comfortable) from July 26th to 2yth, and found it a charming 

 little place for the fagged brain-worker to take the short rest which is 

 so often necessary at the commencement of a holiday. The weather 

 on the first two days was dull and the sky overcast with strong wind 

 at times, and certainly not good for collecting ; but we were able to 

 stir up most of the species we expected to find there. The most 

 common insect was EjnnepJicle tithonns, here a rich fulvous and 

 strongly marked form ; Lainpides boeticK^ also occurred abundantly, 

 the $ s busy ovipositing, but both males and females so exceedingly 

 worn that every one netted was released. The second broods of 

 Melitaea cinxia and Brenthis selene were just emerging; Hipparclda 

 cnrthiisa var. dentata was to be taken in plenty and in good condition 

 among the furze on the slopes leading down to the small bogs ; also 

 ('ocuonympha arcauia with fine white bands on the undersides similar 

 to the Eclepens form. We only saw three Heteropter)is viorpJieus, of 

 which we caught one worn g , which was disturbed from the 

 bushes near the edge of the marsh. It was something, however, to 

 have seen this insect on the wing. The impression we formed was 

 that we were much too late for Lepidoptcra at Guethary. July 29th 

 was spent in travelling to La Granja via Segovia, the journey being, 

 in ihis extraordinary year, quite cool and enjoyable, and the "Rapido" 

 arriving at Segovia at the time scheduled. We were rather surprised 

 to find that no one at the Hotel de Roma spoke French ; indeed, we 

 heard nothing but the Spanish tongue at La Granja, as everywhere 

 else in Spain. 



February 15tii, 1913. 



