Il6 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



And this brings us to our final standpoint. In my inability 

 to pursue the more accustomed path of the annual addresses, and 

 review for you the notabilia of the entomological year, I fear I 

 have been betrayed into an erratic course among vain retro- 

 spections and useless speculations. It is, however, profitable 

 sometimes to stand back as it were, and view a matter or a study 

 in which one is continually interested as a whole, and in the due 

 perspective of a common intellectual atmosphere, and my purpose 

 to-night has been to do this, and to show that the study for which 

 our Society exists, besides being an anodyne for, and a refuge 

 from, the increasing strain and stress of our necessary daily 

 work, is also a science, and, as a science, is concerned with the 

 constant and ineffable mystery of organic life. 



NOTES ON CORSICAN BUTTERFLIES. 

 By William E. Nicholson, F.E.S. 



Mb. Standen has already given an excellent account of his 

 experiences in collecting in Corsica (Entom. xxvi. pp. 236-238 

 and 259-263), and, although I visited the island a mouth later, 

 I have but little to add thereto. Some of the species, such as 

 Argynnis eliza and Satyr us neomiris, which were rave at the time 

 of his visit, occurred in considerable abundance later on, while 

 A. paphia var. anargyra was in profusion. It is not my intention, 

 however, to give any further account of collecting in the island, 

 but merely to draw attention to some of the interesting problems 

 presented by its butterfly fauna. 



Corsica, although like England, belonging to Mr. Wallace's 

 class of recent continental islands, presents a very much larger 

 amount of differentiation, and its isolation must be of far greater 

 antiquity. A map of Pleistocene Europe, given in Mr. Boyd Daw- 

 kins' ' Early Man in Britain,' shows Corsica and Sardinia united 

 to the mainland of Italy in the direction of the islands of Capraja 

 and Elba. The greater part of the sea in this direction is within 

 the 100-fathom line, though there are some deeper channels within 

 the 500-fathom line. I am, however, inclined to think that iso- 

 lation must have taken place rather early in this period to 

 account for some of the i^henomena that the fauna presents. 



One of the most striking features of the fauna is the absence, 

 notwithstanding the fact that the island is almost entirely 

 mountainous, with some peaks over 8000 feet high, of any of 

 the strictly alpine species of the mainland. Among the most 

 conspicuous absentees are the genus Parnassius, Colias palceno, 

 and C. phicomone ; the alpine blues, such as Lyccena pheretes, 

 L. eros, and L. orbitulus, Lycsenidse generally being very poorly 



