NOTES ON A BUTTERFLY HUNT IN FRANCE IN 1910. 301 



superior to the attractions of a long-defunct rabbit, over which 

 they flitted incessantly, settling finally, as one sees the Lycasnids 

 at the water's edge of a hot July day in the mountains. We 

 also bagged odd specimens oi Nomiades cyllarus, Hesperia alveus, 

 and A^. semiargus, while here and there rain-soaked Aporia cratcegi 

 and Argynnis aglaia would be seen glued to the flower- heads of 

 Centaur ea nigra. With Adopcea sylvanus and occasional Argynnis 

 selene our meagre captures came to an end, and, as the weather 

 showed no sign of amendment, and the barometer refused to 

 budge the fortieth fraction of an inch in the right direction, we 

 reluctantly packed up our traps on the 27th and took the train 

 to Paris. 



Generally speaking, and from experience gained elsewhere in 

 France, and latterly at Eennes, what must strike the British 

 collector as inexplicable is the absence in our own country of 

 certain butterflies common enough in the northern French 

 woods and plains. The conditions, geographically and geologi- 

 cally, appear identical ; the climate of the forest region of the 

 north approximates sufficiently to that of our southern and 

 midland enclosures ; the winters are not as a rule more humid 

 in the South of England. Chrysophanus hippothoe, L. (^ chryseis, 

 Hb.) has a traditional connection with the southern counties. 

 But why, if it ever really existed otherwise than as an importa- 

 tion, should it have disappeared as effectually as its greater con- 

 gener, C. dispar"? The larva is not dependent on the Great 

 Water-dock, as was the case with dispar, though C. var. rutilus 

 in its Continental habitats affects sorrel and bistort ; nor is it 

 exclusively a fen species. It occurs in France to the very coasts 

 of the Channel, namely, at Eu, in Seine-Inferieure ; it is gene- 

 rally prolific. In the same way Carcharodus alcea, a much 

 stronger winged butterfly, might have been expected to cross the 

 sea and establish itself on our south-coast mallows, as it also 

 reaches to the water's edge at Cancale, in Brittany, where, 

 M. Charles Oberthiir informs me, it is common in the garden of 

 his villa; the haunt also of that successful Devon immigrant, 

 Calliinorpha hera. In the same way Hesperia alveus (a doubtful 

 British capture) — a stout aviator — seems to frequent the entire 

 line of Departments through Ille-et-Vilaine, Seine-Inferieure, and 

 Somme to the embrochure of the Somme.* Pararge achiue also 

 suggests itself as an ought-to-be British insect, while the occur- 

 rence of Argynnis niobei on the sand-dunes of Calais lends pro- 



- My authorities for the above observations are M. Charles Oberthiir 

 (Etudes de Lepid. Comparee), M. P. Noel (Cat. des Lepid. dela Seine-Infer.), 

 and M. Postel, late of Mailly-Maillet, Somme {in litt.) respectively. 



f Recorded by M. Paux (Bull. Sci. de France et de la Belgique, ser. 6, 

 torn. iv. Nord) as " not rare " at Malo-les-Bains (Nord) ; and by M. Giard in 

 the Boulonaise (Pas de Calais) on the dunes, the food-plant of the larva being 

 Viola, sabulosa, exclusive in this locality to the coast of these two north- 

 eastern Departments. 



