56 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
about 1.30, and after a late déjeuner at once set off to investi- 
gate the first length of the classic ‘‘ Route du Lac d’Allos,” 
where I hoped to capture in good condition some at least of the 
butterflies over or on the wane when I was here in 1908. With 
the exception of July 20th and 22nd, the whole of my collecting 
at Allos was done between the village and the lake. The mule- 
path mounts steeply from the one street and then more gently, 
and sometimes between thick hedges, past meadows already 
harvested, to the first bridge over the Chadoulin stream. On 
the southward slopes butterflies were generally in evidence, but 
more distinguished by quantity than by quality. Here on the 
lavender tufts—this being about the vertical limit of the plant— 
the males of Hpinephele lycaon were freshly emerged. Of the 
‘‘ Blues,” Plebetus argyrognomon predominated, but the beautiful 
blue female, var. calliopis, Bsdv., of which I had secured a 
specimen or two at Digne, evidently belongs tv the lower levels 
and the hotter limestone. A few perfect males of Lycena arion 
haunted the lavender. Here, also, one warm afternoon towards 
sunset I picked up a curious aberrant form of Melitea didyma 
settled to roost. On the under side, while all the black spots 
and lines remain, the usual tawny markings, notably those of 
the basal and ante-marginal bands of the hind wings, have 
almost entirely disappeared, giving a peculiar black-and-white 
chequered appearance to the insect as it sat motionless on the 
stalk (=derufata, n. ab.). 
Hereabouts, too, a low hedge fencing a new-mown field was 
alive with a diminutive race of Aglaope infausta, both sexes in 
fine condition, and with them a few Adscita pruni were kicked 
up from the grass, though neither ‘‘ Burnets”’ nor ‘‘ Foresters ” 
were at all frequent, and at this point the same remark applies 
to the Hesperiide, for which I was chiefly on the alert. But, 
as everywhere else in the south-east this year, Satyrus cordula 
was abundant; not so Hipparchia semele, though possibly it was 
still somewhat early for the latter. 
The only Theclid at all common was 7’. spint, some of the 
males extraordinarily small, the high Alpes-Maritimes form, as 
a rule, being of quite the average size. But not one single 
T’. acacie did I encounter along the line of sloe bushes, where 
the females were common enough in August, 1908, and where 
by all rules the males should now have been disporting them- 
selves. Brenthis amathusia, also not rare near the bridge in 
that year, was another absentee. Sailing over the willows I 
saw not a few superb Huvanessa antiopa, with rarer Limenitis 
camilla and Polygonia c-album. 
A recent writer has remarked on the moisture-loving pro- 
pensities of the Camberwell Beauty, and I noticed that it would 
frequently lie with wings flat and fully extended on the stones 
facing the sun; and also that very occasionally it joined the 
