55 



A FEW NOTES FROM BERISAL DURING JUNE, 1907. 

 By R. M. Prideaux. 



Having read Mr. Rowland-Brown's recent interesting article 

 (Entom. vol. xl. pp. 241-248), it occurred to me that a few 

 observations from the same district, made prior to his sojourn 

 there, may be worth jotting down. 



Mr. G. C. Griffiths and myself, after a short experience in the 

 Lower Rhone Valley, arrived at Berisal for an eleven days' stay 

 on June 13th last. As elsewhere, the season was a decidedly 

 backward one, and far too early at this period for the more 

 essentially alpine species to put in an appearance. Nevertheless, 

 we did not do badly, being able to secure many species freshly 

 emerged, and also to find a considerable number of interesting 

 larvae and pupae from the rocks and stones, &c., in the neighbour- 

 hood, a fair proportion of which were subsequently reared to 

 maturity at home. 



Mr. Rowland-Brown's tragic account of the condition of the 

 locality for Rusticus zephyrus var. lijcidas above Refuge II. empha- 

 sizes our good fortune in having had an earlier experience of it. 

 Normally, it would appear that this species might first be looked 

 for at the end of May, judging from its abundance this year by 

 June 15th, on which date even a few slightly ragged specimens 

 were to be seen. No doubt a very prolonged period of emergence 

 enables this species to hold its own in a much hackneyed locality. 

 Having on previous occasions obtained specimens of R. lycidas, 

 I was content with boxing a few perfect ones. They are best 

 obtained, in my opinion, on a dull, windless day, or towards 

 sundown, by scanning the grassy downs and slopes where the 

 food-plant occurs, when they may readily be discovered at rest. 

 The females lay pretty freely in captivity on Astragalus exocarpus, 

 but it is difficult to obtain a satisfactory root of this plant for 

 transplantation, and a trial of the young larvae on various other 

 Leguminosae, and also on Erica and Calluna, proved a failure. I 

 possess one male of this species which exhibits a few of the 

 silvery-blue scales on the eye-spots of the under side hind wings 

 placed where they normally occur in the type R. zephyrus, also in 

 R. argus and R. argyrognomon. 



The latter two " blues," though later abounding in company 

 with lycidas, had not emerged on June 15th, nor were seen there 

 until several days later. Polyommatus escheri did not turn up 

 until the 18th, when the males began to appear in superb con- 

 dition. A pleasant surprise was the sight of P. baton between 

 the Ganter Bridge and Refuge II., several specimens in fair 

 condition turning up on and after the 17th. Another un- 

 expectedly early visitor was a male P. eros, attracted by a puddle 

 close to the Ganter Bridge, on the 18th, but not subsequently 



