258 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



myself in this pleasant little Alpine town. Here I spent three 

 days. But though twice I ascended to the higher Erebia zone 

 on the path (?) to the Pain de Sucre, on both occasions cloud 

 and heavy rain, succeeding bright mornings, destroyed any 

 chance I may have had of netting scijno there, and I was com- 

 pelled to defer my hopes elsewhere. While the sun shone, how- 

 ever, there were many butterflies on the wing, though for the 

 most part decidedly passes. Just outside Grenoble, from the train 

 window, I had noted fine fresh examples of Pajnlio yodaUrius of 

 the second brood, and Satijrus circe. On the mountain-paths 

 round Barcelonnette the commonest insects were unquestionably 

 Poli/ommatus damon, and the same splendid Satyrid, with 

 battered Argynnids and Melitaeids — D.imphia, A. adippe {none, 

 seen of the cleodoxa form, generally common in the South of 

 France), A. n'lohe, M. j)h(xhe, females; while of the fresher 

 order, fine, brightly-coloured M. didi/ma, with typical females, 

 and Brenthis ino among the wild raspberry were abundant. 

 Following some distance up the valley the rivulet which de- 

 scends from the Pain de Sucre, and falls into the Ubaye at the 

 iron town-bridge, I found Erebia neoridas, males, in fine condi- 

 tion, single Polygonia c-album, and representatives of all the 

 August Satyrids — S. hermione, S. alcyone, S. statilinus var. 

 allionia, S. cordida (worn) , Hipparchia briseis, fine and large, and 

 H. semele, of course, with brilliant Pararge mcera var. adrasta on 

 the warm stone walls which separate the little plots of cultivated 

 land. Most of the lower Erebias, however, had obviously seen 

 their best days. E. stygne was in rags ; E. {BtJuops not much 

 better, and a few E. ligea. But at about 5000 ft. the condition 

 of most things showed an improvement. E. eiiryale, a quite un- 

 distinguished form, was swarming, and scattered E. tyndarus 

 disclosed the form dromus. On a marshy patch Coenonympha 

 iphis put in an appearance ; and I should add that faded females 

 of C. doriis and C. arcania were also to be seen on the lower 

 paths, wath Thymelicus acUeon, T. lineola, and occasional Pyrgiis 

 sao. "Blues" were conspicuous by their absence, except damon. 

 P. corydon was quite rare : one or two P. escheri, and P. alexis, 

 a single P. baton, and a worn male P. optilete high up, with 

 Rusticus argyrognomon constituted a meagre bag. 



Noting in Mr. Wheeler's ' Butterflies of the Central Alps ' 

 that Alios is given by Mr. Powell as a locality for E. scipio I 

 transferred my attentions thither on the 5th. The drive over 

 the Col d'Allos in the "Cars Alpins " is pleasant enough, the 

 road gradually rising from the valley by lavender-covered slopes 

 alive with Colias edusa, Satyrus cordiUa, and Callimorpha liera to 

 the regular zone inhabited by Parnassius apollo, and I daresay 

 many other Alpine species. JBut as the sun now disappeared for 

 something like forty-eight hours, and the rain descended during 

 the whole of my first day at Alios without a moment's inter- 



