254 THE entomologist's record. 



1912), he says that at the time of writing, the only records of the- 

 occurrencG of A. thersitcs in the Rhone valley were from Ollon, Visp, 

 and specimens taken by himself in the Val d'Herens. I therefore gave 

 special attention to looking for this species all through the summer, 

 and have in consequence been able to add several more localities for it, 

 namely : at the foot of Les Pleiades above Clarens, Aigle, St. Triphon, 

 Charpigny, most of the fields round St. Triphon Station, all along the 

 banks of the Gr^'onne river, from where it flows into the Rhone to the 

 other side of the valley, on the main road from St. Triphon to Bex, 

 and rough ground near the railway lines on the Bex side of the 

 Gryonne. In this last locality I took three undoubted specimens of 

 PolijoiniDatiis icariis var. icarijins, in the second brood, the only ones I 

 have seen this year, or so far taken in Switzerland. Between Bex and 

 Sierre A. thersitea does not seem to occur. I was unable to find any 

 trace of it near Vernayaz, Martigny, Follaterre, or Sierre ; but in the 

 Pfyn Wald near the village of Pfyn Mr. Temperley took two 3 $ . 



In these localities where A. ther^iitei^ is found it is quite abundant, 

 but seems to be strictly confined to places where Ojtobri/cliis satica, 

 presumably its foodplant, grows. In most instances here the connec- 

 tion between the two is very marked. To take one example. At the 

 foot of Les Pleiades on a rough patch of ground, about 100 yds. long 

 by 50 broad, there was a lot of O. mtiva growing, and A. themites was 

 plentiful; but, on either hand, in the fields on the hill side, where 

 HirnHtina tlai)iOJi, Ai/riades coridon, Pohjoiiniiatns icariis, ('olias Ju/ale, 

 etc., were flying in numbers there was not one specimen of A.thersites, 

 and though a long search was made, not a single plant of 0. nativa could 

 be found. One would expect A. thersites to occur at Sion, as over 

 miles of country there, on the right bank of the Rhone, amongst acres 

 of orchards and asparagus beds, ().sati.ra grows in prof usion over every 

 yard of uncultivated ground, but of course, as it is a very common 

 plant, it naturally grows in many places where A. themites probably 

 does not occur. 



As will be seen from the above list, the headquarters of A. thcrsitfs 

 in this part of the Rhone valley are round St. Triphon, where it 

 spreads over the whole valley. In all these localities it is double- 

 brooded. I first found it by the Gryonne, on April 28th, and during 

 the next few days it became abundant, and lasted on until the very 

 end of May, the second brood appearing about July 18th, and I 

 took the last stragglers of it (2 <? (^ and 1 ? ) on September 19th. 

 All through this time it appeared to renew itself continually, as in spite 

 of the frequent intervals of very bad weather, it was possible to obtain 

 fresh specimens flying with numerous worn ones, up to the end of 

 August and beginning of September. 



The specimens in my possession show a considerable tendency to 

 variation, considering the limited area from which they have come, 

 although there is very little diti'erence between the spring and summer 

 broods. On the whole, the ground colour of the ? 2 of the summer 

 brood may be said to be darker than that of the ? ? of the spring 

 brood ; they are also less scaled with blue, and the orange lunules of 

 the forewings are more conspicuous. 



In size the <y cT I'un slightly larger than the ? 5 , varying from 

 3ilmm.-38mm. as compared to the 32mm. -34mm. of the 5 ? , though 



