10 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Villars, I chose the longer route. From Sassenage the road is 

 all up-hill, with steep gradients, and, as the motor slowed down, 

 I was able to see something of the larger butterflies at all 

 events on the flowery banks and rocky promontories through 

 which we wound. The morning was fine ; the sun full on the 

 slopes below the Gorge d'Engins, and butterflies 'were in force 

 with Satyrus cordula (males) in the ascendant, and very soon the 

 familar Erehia stygne. Occasional Parnassius apollo sailed lazily 

 down the gullies, and the "blues" were represented by Pleheius 

 argus {cegon). Aporia cratcegi swung from the ox-eyed-daisy- 

 heads as we topped the Gorge and entered on the long, green, 

 highly cultivated valley of the Lans, and there even the 

 " whites " became scarce until we reached the charming little 

 country-house Hotel du Pare, where I put up for a couple 

 of days ; nor should I have pressed on so soon had not the 

 weather, from warm and sunny, changed suddenly to cool, with 

 much cloud hanging low upon the hills I had hoped to climb. 

 Flying down the road on the afternoon of the 2nd I saw one 

 freshly emerged Papilio machaon — the only one of its kind met 

 with until the very end of July — while a stroll towards the 

 Gorges of the Bourne brought me to much promising ground, 

 the waste places gay with the flowers of a fine red thistle-like 

 Centaurea, usually most attractive to my game. The next day, 

 therefore, I walked down the Gorge, which is singularly 

 beautiful with its forest and rushing stream, as far as the 

 bridge where the road divides, that to the left towards St. 

 Martin-en-Vercors, that to the right towards Pont-en-Eoyans. 



The weather was all against collecting, but before mid-day 

 there were fitful gleams of sunshine, and at one or two points 

 by the roadside butterflies were flying, but difficult to reach 

 owing to the extreme steepness of the slopes, which, by the way, 

 were rosy with an abundance of ripe alpine strawberries. Erehia 

 stygne was the commonest insect with A. cratcegi, and on one 

 small patch, full of wild balsams not yet in flower, Euchlo'e 

 cardamines and the spring form of Pieris napi were surprisingly 

 fresh, in contrast to Brenthis euphrosyne and Pararge hiera, both 

 of which species had seen their best days ; a small dark race of 

 P. mcera evidently just emerging. One fresh male, Melitcea 

 dictynna, was put up among some raspberry bushes, where 

 M. athalia also occurred singly. Aglais iirticce and Pyrameis 

 cardui showed the hibernators and their progeny overlapping. 

 The Lycaenids were Polyommatus icarus and (one) Lyccena arion. 

 But it was now so cold and the wind so high that I had to give 

 up collecting ; the only other butterflies observed being 

 Thymeliciis Jiavus (thaumas), Chrysophanus dorilis var. suhalpina, 

 and one male C. virgaurece picked up crushed on the gravel 

 path in front of the hotel. July 4th was equally windy and 

 cool— fine without sun — and the mountains still canopied with 



