150 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
“‘ Hylas, 8. V. var. panoptes, Hb.—The type wanting in our 
neighbourhood, but the var. panoptes flies commonly in April 
on rocky calcareous land where the wild thyme grows.”’ 
The habitat he particularises further (‘ Icon.,’ fase. ii, p. 882) 
as ‘‘ principally the borders of the pine woods situated on the 
Le Cannet road, where it is certain to be met with in pro- 
fusion.” But he continues that it is not easy to define in words: 
the different characters of variety and type. One decisive 
difference, however, had been clearly noted by Duponchel (‘ Cat.. 
Méthod. des Lépids.,’ 1844, p. 82) as follows :— 
“Var. panoptes H., without the tawny spots,” i.e. on the 
under side of the hind wings, corresponding with Hubner’s 
excellent fioures 670-3. 
I do not think Milliere could have seen these figures, or that. 
he had referred to Duponchel. In the beautiful plate of tbe 
‘Iconographie’ (fase. ii., pl. 85), on which the larva and pupa. 
are figured on the food plant with exquisite fidelity, he presents. 
a figure of the upper side of a typical Riviera baton, showing 
thereby that he had not grasped the distinguishing characters. 
In my series from this region I have not a single panoptes, and 
Mr. Wheeler (‘ Butterflies of Switzerland,’ etc., p. 40) observes 
that ‘collectors well acquainted with. these parts assure me 
that genuine panoptes is not found there, except as an occasional 
ab.” Evidently, then, Milliere thought that the small dark 
form was Hibner’s variety; and the legend grew apace. 
Hsper (pl. liii., fig. 1) renamed the species amphion, and fixed 
the type as that having a band of bright and well-developed 
orange-red spots forming the ante-marginal border on the 
underside of the hind wings. Mr. Morris describes baton as 
locally common at Cannes under normal conditions, but from 
a recent letter 1am afraid that what is left of it in these once 
thyme-haunted spots is in danger of complete extinction. 
‘* Acres of wild thyme in the district have almost disappeared, 
and the cause is this. Every day peasants with sacks come 
and drag it up by the roots for rabbits, on which they are 
subsisting, as meat is so expensive. When asked why they do 
not cut it, and let it grow again, they reply that it is more 
easily pulled up now after the excessive rains of March, but that 
it will grow again of itself.” Let us hope so; meanwhile, baton 
tends to become decidedly rare hereabouts, and, I faney, all 
along the Riviera, if the same disastrous practices are generally 
adopted. 
P. orion.—Very local, and a few only where it occurs. A 
much commoner insect in the lower Piedmontese Alps. Var. 
ornata, Stgr. Mr. Morris reports on April 10th this year, ‘‘ five 
females in lovely condition, scarcely dry, at white heath on very 
wet rocks in a little gully towards Mougins. Hitherto, our 
several localities have produced only one or two of the small 
